
Chss "R H5 
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CQFffilGKT DEPOSIT. 



THE WILL TO BEAUTY 

Being a continuation of the philosophies of 
Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche 



BY 

ABRAHAM KANOVITCH 



"Say on sayers! 

Delve ! mould ! pile the words of the earth ! 

Work on — (it is materials you bring, not breadths) 

Work on, age after age ! nothing is to be lost ; 

It may have to wait long, but it will certainly 

come in use. 
When the materials are all prepared, the architects 

shall appear." 

Walt Whitman 



NEW YORK 
GOLD ROSE PRINTING CO. 

PUBLISHERS 
1922 



ft** 



Copyright, 1923 
By ABRAHAM KANOVITCH 



All rights reserved 






©CI.A66198 8 



PREFACE 

From ancient times an undercurrent of tragedy 
surged. The beautiful fables of Greece that 
glorified the human relations to the height of 
gods that dwelt in Olympus yielded in helplessness 
in Greek tragedy. The QEdipus of Sophocles 
shows to us how the attempt to solve the riddle 
of life "ends in a sea of dire woe"; and in 
"Anathema," the modern tragic drama of Leonid 
Andreyev, the speechless one veiled in gray is as 
unyielding to entreaty as the silent sphinx of old. 

Hellenic beauty, because it was incomplete, had 
to descend and disintegrate itself. Down and 
down it went until it reached the religion of 
sorrow. The unconscious Will of the universe 
was not satisfied with a fable, it needed further 
amplification in fact and clear reason. It had to 
descend to the prose of modern science and 
mechanist invention, to Darwin, to the doctrine 
of "utility" of Spencer, to the mathematical phi- 
losophy of Kant. From the Greek oracle to the 
dark seance rooms of modern spiritualism, until 
it could rebound and the scattered fragments be 
integrated in the present "Will to Beauty." The 
Greek mythos of beauty is now reborn into a 
philosophy based on clear reason instead of fable. 

This is the New Hellenism to which the re- 
ligions of human suffering must yield. 

* * * * 
iii 



The reader is asked not to be satisfied with a 
hasty reading, but rather to study (at intervals), 
to read and reread two or three times; it cannot 
be understood at once. 

New York, April i, 192 1. 



IV 



EXPLANATORY INTRODUCTION 

If God is a mind, especially an all-knowing 
mind, as the religious claim, why does he not stop 
a fire when innocent human beings are burning? 
If he is all-merciful, why does he permit his chil- 
dren to be buried under the debris of an earth- 
quake or the lava of a volcano? Religious people 
worship a God that does not have the mercy that 
they have. If these things are the work of the 
"devil," then why does not the omnipotent God 
overpower the devil? 

These have been, and will remain forever, the 
most honest questions that a human being can 
ask. There is no theologian living that can 
answer these questions without resorting to a 
sophistry that is an insult to the human mind. 

The true answer to these questions came when 
Schopenhauer discovered the "Will." The uni- 
verse is an unconscious force, or motive, seeking 
a conscious ego. "God" does not know, but by 
a ponderous evolution it attains to the human 
mind. "God" is the great unconscious. The 
question before us now is, What is the aim and 
object of this unconscious Will of the universe? 
Schopenhauer was pessimistic because it appeared 
to him that the Will has no object but to create 
and destroy, to create and destroy. Nietzsche, 
who followed Schopenhauer, tried to work up a 
little enthusiasm. This unconscious Will, accord- 
ing to Nietzsche, is the Will to Power — power 
trying to exceed itself. It glories in power and in 
the esthetics of power. But as the Will to Power 
must finally destroy the ego that it has evolved, 
the enthusiasm cannot be very great, almost any 
sensible person will admit. 

v 



Since the time of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche 
weak and decadent philosophers have sprung up. 
They are the weeds that spring up among the 
vegetation. Whenever the human race makes 
progress the religious reactionaries utilize that 
progress for proving their point over again. 

We live and have lived in a condition of eco- 
nomic injustice, a condition of rich and poor, 
masters and servants. In order to sustain this 
economic chaos, religion and morality are neces- 
sary. I call this the "religio-economic arrange- 
ment," because they are inseparable. 

These weak and decadent philosophers are the 
Bergsons and the pragmatists like William 
James. They would have a human being go 
through all sorts of moral gymnastics until he 
becomes "spiritual," very much as theosophists 
would have a human being go through lives and 
deaths that he may lose that thing most beautiful 
about his, his naive and human qualities, and 
become a saintly abstraction. This work is not 
for them to accomplish. They talk about art 
without being artists, they talk about "spiritism" 
without being mediums themselves; and the un- 
conscious "Will" of Schopenhauer offers no ob- 
stacle to them. They can evolve a world of gods 
and Jesuses just the same; all that is necessary is 
a little more sophistry and you have the religio- 
economic interpretation over again. 

The Will to Beauty is opposed to theism in 
any form and to the religio-moral. It holds, 
however, that the unconscious Will of the uni- 
verse strikes a balance. It teaches an after-life 
without a God. 



vi 



"God" is a sincere passion, therefore it attains 
to beauty. 



Force is Invisible (Insensible) until it 
Produces a Contrast 

The unconscious motive of the universe can 
attain reality only through contrasted action. 
Sharp contrast, and then lesser contrast, that is 
all there is to reality. There is no other reality. 

* * * * 

Contrast is the simplest conception of the 
mind. Nature cannot be reduced to anything less 

simple. 

* * * * 

There is only one inevitable law in nature, 
and that is contrast; upon this inevitable law all 
other so-called law is built. 



Concentration into a Center and 
Radiation from a Center 

All the power in the universe seeks to con- 
centrate itself and to hide itself under a garb of 
impotence into a sincere human ego. After it 
has attained this center of sincerity, it seeks a 
condition of security whence it may radiate again. 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Preface iii 

Explanatory Introduction v 

"Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future" . . n 
The Contrasted Viewpoints of Schopenhauer 

and Nietzsche 17 

The Unconscious Motive Seeks Itself in 

Human Emotion 18 

The Contrast of Emotions 19 

Explanatory 23 

Decadence 24 

Interpretation Is All There Is ... 26 
The Superstate as a Condition of Undomi- 

nated Force Yielding to the Will of 

the Ego 26 

The Unconscious Devil-god 30 

Infinity and Chaos 31 

Nietzsche the Immoralist 36 

"Beyond Good and Evil" 38 

The Nature of Art and Realism as Opposed 

to the Subliminal and the Infinite . . 48 

Central Doctrine 51 

The Will in Botany 61 

The Will in Astronomy 67 

The Will in Eugenics 81 

Religion 93 

To the Student of the Future ..... 93 

Decadence 93 

Equality 94 

ix 



PACK 

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous ... 95 

Preface to the Will in Chemistry 96 

The Will in Chemistry 98 

Miscellaneous 114 

Schopenhauer's " World as Will and Idea" 116 

Bergson and Wm. James 117 

Herbert Spencer 121 

Relativity (Einstein) 121 

Nature Changes from Contrast to Motive, 

from Motive to Contrast . . . . . 127 

Immanuel Kant 129 

The Mistakes of Nietzsche 131 

The Mind, the Amplifier 133 

The Self Creative 135 

Free Will 137 

Reincarnation 138 

The Relation of Subject to Object . . .139 
Interpretation as a Means of Discovering 
the Truth as Opposed to the Scientific 

Method 140 

Oscar Wilde and Whistler 141 

Walt Whitman 143 

Contrasted Styles in Art 144 

Nietzsche contra Wagner 145 

Business 147 

Romanticism 150 

The Great Principle in Construction . . . 151 

The Human All Too Human 152 

The Social Order of the Future 164 

The Perfect City 167 

Obsession 170 

Vision and Realism versus Fantastic Imagi- 
nation 191 



The Will to Beauty 



DY the Will to Beauty I mean that the uncon- 
-■-* scious motive of the universe strives and 
remains dissatisfied until it is able to attain the 
realization of its energy in the climax of emotion 
in the human ego, not through sorrow and re- 
ligion, which is its negative mode of attainment, 
but by a rationally constructed social order, where 
the human ego can grow in beauty, and his or her 
emotion rise gradually through happiness and sex 
passion to the ecstasy of love and the profound 
adoration of nature. This is nature's flower. 

The Superman and the Superstate 

I employ the words superman and superstate 
to designate the human being in the after-death 
condition; instead of the word "spirit." 

See the section entitled "Obsession" (end of 
book) for details regarding the after-death state. 

Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future 

The creative Will speaks : "I am only a mystery 
to those who would not listen. The child who 
raises its hands to the moon and stars knows my 
secret. The lovers who walk in silence and beauty 
know it. The poet who meets me by brooding 

ii 



rivers and weeps tears of joy, he knows it best. 
From molten chaos I have fashioned this sphere. I 
have waited for ages until the overhanging vapors 
might condense into great waters. Coarse vege- 
tation and ponderous animals, hateful to look at, 
rose up. They devoured each other with great 
ferocity. For ages they had to continue for I, 
the helpless one, great in passion but bound by 
necessity, had no other way to bring my primitive, 
my dazed, man child. Deep was his woe, deeper 
his ignorance, for he made for himself strange 
gods that needed constant prayer and sacrifice. 
To them he sacrificed his brothers and sisters and 
his one redeeming procreative passion. But I am 
not this God. Sacrifice and prayer are hateful to 
me. Listen to my secret. I am the procreative 
passion. In the spring come odorous blossoms 
and birds that sing in the trees. The grass is 
soft and green at your feet. In the vault of 
heaven shining spheres float in rhythmic motion. 
The moon breaks forth from beneath a sweeping 
cloud and hides again. The hum and lull of the 
deep-breathing orchestra of night completes my 
harmony. This is my meaning. This is as much 
as I could do without your aid. I ask a greater 
harmony, the conscious man whose religion is 
beauty. I want the child that will raise its hands 
to the moon and stars as the poplars and cedars 
whose branches yearn skyward. I want the beau- 
tiful and sincere lovers to grace my landscape, and 
the poet whose tears mingle with the flowing 



current." 



I see a new civilization arise by the banks of 
this very river. For ages its restless waves have 
rushed in despair to unknown seas, for the life 

12 



by its shores was of the dumb brute and savage 
man who lived by mutual slaughter. Its border- 
ing shores he denuded of its trees and built an 
iron city with a heart of stone. But its waters 
shall not always rush in despair. I see a new 
civilization to whom death will no longer be a 
thing of fear that steals upon one as a thief in 
the night, and throws its dark shadow over a 
meaningless life. I see a new humanity reclaimed 
from mechanism, its iron monsters hidden. I see 
young men, the best-hearted with comely bearded 
faces, intellectual artists and socialists. I see 
the lovers with clasped hands exchanging the vow 
of sincere passion. I see the silent one; he walks 
brooding by the shore. I see tears flowing from 
his eyes and he whispers to the tide and the rising 
trees: "Where are you flowing, my waters? 
Why are you yearning, my tall trees." "Toward 
the great harmony," they answer, "toward the 

great harmony." 

* * * * 

I saw the vision of the superman; he came to 

me in the night and whispered his name. He 

was of my kin, but of his presence, how can I 

tell, for there is nothing on earth I can compare 

his presence to. He seemed like a fragrant tree 

who stood for ages rising to the sun. He came 

to me from the virgin forest of God, and I knew 

that man is but the seed whose heart must be 

torn in pain, whose tears must flow like rivers of 

sorrow, and like the black seed, his body must rot 

in the earth before he can send forth the first 

shoot and receive the dews of heaven, and as the 

welcome dews of heaven were the tears I shed 

when I saw him of my kin who left the earth an 

unknown man come in the holy night to share with 

13 



me its celestial harmonies. Dark-robed night, to 
me of all men have you yielded up your secret, 
folded in veils of azure, and sealed with the 
silence of the ages. Why do you brood on your 
deep-toned strings ? O night ! why do you mourn 
with stately requiem the dying sunset? Why sighs 
the wind in the swaying tree? What has hushed 
the song in its branches? 

* * * * 

Every discovery commences with a vision, a 
faith, a passion. Its elucidation is but its unfold- 
ment. There is no such thing as reason in itself, 
for that would mean that one did not desire to 
prove anything. Vision brings with it faith, for 
what good can abstract truth be to him who has 
seen something beautiful? Analysis would be a 
descent into a negation. Analysis is necessary, 
but it is of value only with the faith of vision. 

Sf» 3JC 2|C S|S 

The mistake of philosophers before Schopen- 
hauer (even of Herbert Spencer, who came after) 
has been that they did not realize that when you 
arrive to force you arrive to the infinite. It is 
the searching of a cause for force that is respon- 
sible for the idea of a god, the "unknowable," 
and u the thing in itself." It is like trying to ex- 
plain what is beauty. Beauty is a force in har- 
mony with itself. Cause, reason, only applies to 
the components of the harmony. When you at- 
tain to the harmony (the motive) you cease to 
reason, you feel. If you analyze the notes in a 
melody you lose the melody, you come to mathe- 
matics. Throughout nature force is one with 
the form in which it lives, but man who seeks to 
reason cannot find the harmonic motive, but runs 

14 



from cause to effect, like an imprisoned animal, 
until his strength breaks against the stone wall of 
the "unknowable." 

*|* ^P *P *fr 

All philosophers before Schopenhauer started 
with an infinite that was perfect as the center 
of the universe. "To become like God" is the 
religious ideal, and in trying to realize that ideal 
it was necessary to shut one's eyes to what is 
going on in God's world. The biologists watched 
the beasts' "struggle for existence" in the jungle 
and decided that it was necessary to take pattern 
after that. Nietzsche seeing "power" decided to 
place power, both in construction and destruction, 
on a par, which is another way of imitating God. 
At last we shall know that man must not copy 
either God or animals; both are blind and in- 
stinctive. The wonder of a human being is his 
frailty. (See "Human, All Too Human.") His 
weaknesses, his faults even, are better than all 
the virtues that moralists ever invented. The 
highest order of energy hides itself under a garb 
of impotence. 

* * * * 

And so I did not take pattern, as Nietzsche did, 
after a regiment of cavalry, but in a deep forest 
valley, where the murmur of trees turned to sad 
music as if by the skill of a composer. I heard 
the climax of pathos in the song of a bird during 
the mating season, flutelike and of the profoundest 
melody, the beautiful lone singer of the valley. 

* * * * 

From Whistler I learned to see in ensemble 
by continuous practice for many years. I learned 
that vision is flexible. The artist reads beauty 

*5 



into the things he sees. The contour of the face 
and form of the man or woman he is painting 
ceases to be physiological, it becomes beauty to 
his eyes, its shape has actually changed; and so I 
conceived the Will to Beauty. I further saw that 
a work of art, a motive, is expressed by sharp 
contrast and lesser variations. This I applied 
to the nature of time and space, and cause and 
effect. 

* * * * 

How I avoided the snare of the religio-moral, 
that is the miracle. By means of claroaudience 
I made friends with the good devil and his wife 
(the superman and woman) ; I learned that there 
is no sin. I was advised that the law of contrasts 
applies to human conduct. 

* * * * 

A profound emotion overawes and incapaci- 
tates the intellect. The person who has felt pro- 
foundly is more likely to adopt a religion or 
philosophy of sorrow, and to look upon the con- 
clusions of the Will to Beauty as wrong and 
shallow. This is especially so because we live 
in fear, and our profound emotions are born in 
sorrow. A person who has never felt at all 
will weep under pressure of adversity. It is in 
that dangerous moment (dangerous for the in- 
tellect) that a religious philosophy is born: it 
becomes useless to reason with such a person. 
He knows that he has felt, and he assumes that 
another has not felt. 

Let this stand as a warning, then, that the 
point of view of the Will to Beauty was not 
adopted hastily. 



16 



The Contrasted Viewpoints of Schopenhauer 
and Nietzsche 

According to Nietzsche's own admission, there 
was nothing for him to do but to reverse Schopen- 
hauer. The negation of the "Will to Live" be- 
came the ".Will to Power." Schopenhauer still 
remains the serious philosopher, for he recog- 
nized the helplessness of man in his present en- 
vironment, where his every effort to seek his 
pleasure meets with a reaction. His extreme of 
pessimism is the similitude of the Christian re- 
ligion, in spite of the atheistic basis, for, aside 
from its encumbrance of fanaticism, Christianity 
is the idealization of sorrow and self-denial. 
The work of Nietzsche consisted in utilizing the 
great discovery of Schopenhauer, i.e., the "Will" ; 
to this he added the jungle law, the "survival of 
the fittest" of Darwin; upon this base he built up 
a grandiloquent, over-strained philosophy of 
"Power." 

Nietzsche's point of view is somewhat foolish, 
but it corresponds perfectly to the opposite ex- 
treme of Christianity, i.e., war. Unconsciously 
these two continent bachelors repeated the ex- 
treme Christian motive without believing in God. 
The Will to Power, which implies the domina- 
tion of life by sheer force, is the counter-blast to 
pessimism. The depression of life at one end 
only means that it will burst forth in a conflagra- 
tion at its very opposite. We are led from the 
rack of self-denial to the anguish of warfare. 
Here we have two thousand years of that morbid 
distemper called Christianity culminating in the 
most cruel world war. Turning the other cheek, 
loving your enemies, and other such doctrines pale 

17 



and pallid, actually reversing themselves into the 
survival of the fittest. This is the true inner ex- 
planation of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, al- 
though they were sincere men, and the only two 
philosophers who were intrenched on the solid 
base of sound metaphysics. 1 

The Will to Beauty is the harmonic outlet. 
(See, for example, in astronomy, the opposite ex- 
tremes and the balanced harmonic outlet.) 

The Unconscious Motive Seeks Itself in Human 
Emotion 

I now put before you the theory of the Will to 
Beauty. 

The universe is a passion that cannot be con- 
trolled. All human activity only means that this 
passion is striving. All this clash of elements, 
all human conflict and sorrow, only means that 
the Will has not yet realized itself, and so it re- 
mains dissatisfied. 

This unconscious passion destroys the form in 
which it has manifested itself and finds a mode 
of expression diametrically opposed; it goes from 
one condition to its very opposite, until it has 
evolved a conscious ego of profound emotion 
and clear intellect who is able to employ nature's 
greatest secret, i.e., contrasted action, for the 
purpose of expressing his emotions in an environ- 
ment where there is no sorrow. Man must break 
with the beliefs that hold him in repression, for 
there is no God that seeks to dominate over him, 
to impose upon him his law. The religion that 
teaches him sorrow, alike with the prosaic mo- 

1 Von Hartman's philosophy is a demasculated version of 
Schopenhauer. 

18 



notony of utilitarianism that binds him to drudg- 
ery, is false. There is only an unconscious motive 
that wishes man to find out its secret, i.e., the 
pleasure of contrasted emotions. 

What is called good, forms only one set of 
emotions, the sincere ecstasies of religion, expres- 
sion in art, love and the adoration of nature. 
What is called sin, forms a contrary set of emo- 
tions, i.e., sex, passion, drinking, laughter, ridi- 
cule. These are beautiful human qualities. For 
the rest, socialism will stop all the competition, 
war, crime, and economic worry. For how can 
the sincere motive of the universe hold within 
itself that which is contrary to itself? All that we 
need in order to obtain perfection is a sincere 
human being in an environment that will not em- 
barrass him. (See "The Will in Eugenics") 

The Contrast of Emotions 

So strong is the hold of the religio-moral sys- 
tem with its doctrine of self-denial upon the 
human mind, that during the expression of re- 
ligious pathos the mind untrained in the philoso- 
phy of contrasts will look upon sex expression as 
being lesser, imperfect, or even wrong; whereas 
sex beauty with all its intimacy is primal and posi- 
tive in nature (man and woman are the supreme 
contrasts) ; while sorrow is negative, it implies 
that beauty has not been able to come forth ex- 
ultant, in luxurious pleasure, with all the challenge 
of a secure environment such as profuse nature 
guarantees, and for that reason it has taken on a 
note of sorrow. Not that pathos is out of place 
in a world such as we live in, where we must 
wait in patience for every good, but pathos is not 

19 



nature's fruition. Religious pathos is at best a 
contrast to sex love. 

The luxury of sex beauty and love of the woman 
should alternate with the love for creation in 
art, and that, with the knowledge and experience 
that it necessitates. Under religious influence the 
sex impulse soon exhausts itself and leaves the 
woman without a lover, so that the art of life 
(adoration of woman's beauty in wonderful en- 
vironment) is not encouraged to flourish as an 
art that defies by its charm and strength our 
feeble morality and poor economics. 

The emotion of sorrow unbalances the flow of 
nature's circle of harmonic contrasts and varia- 
tions; it inevitably reacts into undue humility, 
anger, ugliness, and inefficiency; it divides the 
human family into the tyrant and slave. 

A religion of sorrow reacts into utilitarian 
drudgery; its accumulation of anger precipitates 
war. Beautiful nature transmutes anger into sex 
passion, but sorrow feeds the emotion of pity with 
the imperfection it creates. Art may take the 
imperfection of real life and weave it into sad 
melodies and dramas that reveal the soul's travail 
and its yearning after an Eden of beauty. Artists 
and poets know well that the plaintive note of 
lament and the theme of pathos augment beauty, 
as her sorrowful expression enhances the beauty 
of Niobe; but in the highest life, it is different. 
Evolution is not satisfied with a state of imper- 
fection; it is for this reason that the Will to 
Beauty raises man to an environment yielding to 
his innermost will, where every condition of hu- 
man life may be touched by art, and realism be 
robbed of its sordidness. 

20 



As soon as man begins to live according to 
nature's motive, which is beauty-worship, an en- 
vironment corresponding to his volition is sure 
to form itself, with mechanism, the invisible serv- 
ant to aid him. With a knowledge of the true 
philosophy he can employ the law of contrasted 
emotions to his advantage and permit his nature 
to ebb and flow and variate from one order of 
beauty to another, instead of being divided into 
good and evil, by a violent religion, driven to 
mediocrity by smug prosperity, or stupefied into 
the beast of burden by relentless poverty. 

When life reaches its flower, the man worships 
the woman and is ennobled by it; and the woman, 
who is the incarnation of beauty, flourishes and 
is made more wonderful by responding to the 
phallic ecstasy; from this they react to love (as 
distinguished from the sexual relationship which 
we will call life), or else, according to their na- 
tures, man reacts to wit and wisdom, and woman 
to the detail of arrangement, foresight, laughter, 
or the art of dissimulation. If in the superstate 
the man may coordinate the corollary of force into 
a landscape that will show the skill of the artist- 
creator, or the detail of a beautiful edifice (which 
is the same as being the owner without its en- 
cumbrance, for it can readily be dispersed into 
dematerialization) and the woman may robe her- 
self in beautiful dress. The perfect man and 
woman have no God to pray to, for life is only 
force that evolves until it reaches its climax; but 
the soul nevertheless is filled with adoration when 
beholding the universe as the evident expression 
of a beautiful will. 



21 



How comely is the earth to him that went forth 
in love ! Dear to him are the stones at his feet 
and dear to him the grass, and as souls in prayer 
are the swaying trees with their manifold chorus 
of little leaves. For God is a sincere passion that 
attains to beauty; it dwells in the brooding tree, 
it breathes in the overhanging peace. 
* * * * 

I see now that the suffering ones who in the 
hour of anguish prayed with tearful eyes had their 
prayers answered by the extent of the emotion 
they rose to; and he that went forth on a lonely 
path, robed in beauty as a god, and with over- 
flowing heart and outstretched hand, whispered, 
"I need nothing," has achieved the object of crea- 
tion. He who has not yet felt the climax of emo- 
tion is like a plant not yet blown into efflorescence. 
Whatever their age, they are but children who 
have not yet attained to their prime. The climax 
of wonderful ecstasy once passed, life arranges 
itself into esthetic balance, for its rapture is too 
enthralling to sustain. The man and woman be- 
come capable of the poetry and music of delicate 
feeling, and sincere love sustains their sincere 
passion. This is the goal of the superman. 

Schopenhauer was right, life is vanity; vanity 
of vanities until life discovers itself in the heart 
of him that has attained to an intense love; he 
becomes the crest on the wave of creation; he is 
like a stately tree in a sacred valley whose rising 
boughs are swayed by mighty winds, filling the air 
with the resonance of solemn music, as of many 
deep-stringed harps. 



22 



Explanatory 

The Will is a passion — a passion that can 
neither be realized nor controlled until it realizes 
itself in an harmonic environment. Such a pas- 
sion makes trouble because it is dissatisfied with 
the imperfect condition in which it struggles. 
It is because the Will seeks its climax of emotion 
that the life of man is what it is. 

We cannot stultify ourselves with apathy or 
fortify ourselves with wealth and power; our se- 
curity would not last long. Sorrow would over- 
take us in one form or another; in other words, 
something would happen that would awaken our 
emotion. Many diseases can be traced to the in- 
activity of the emotions, as inactivity is the basis 
of all sickness. 

The dominant motive in the hierarchy of mo- 
tives is not the search for bread — that becomes a 
nether motive after it is attained. (The Will to 
Beauty employs utility as the nether motive upon 
which it rises.) The dominant motive force of 
life is the need of expressing the emotions. 

Under the most perfect economic conditions a 
philosophy of sorrow would soon be evolved, akin 
to Christianity, if not Christianity itself; or else 
atheistic, similar to the pessimism of Schopen- 
hauer, unless people discovered the secret of con- 
trasting their emotions; namely, after expressing 
themselves in religious-poetic emotion, they can 
turn to sex passion and wine, as a contrast. 
Hypocrisy is the secret. 

Furthermore, without a knowledge of the law 
of contrasted action decadence would soon show 
itself. In a condition of ease and wealth the 
pleasures are carried to that point where they 

23 



reverse themselves into sorrow; the optimistic 
and pleasure-loving people soon arrive at the same 
place as the pessimistic and religious people. 
They soon begin to write doleful poetry of im- 
perfect love affairs and of the emptiness of pleas- 
ure. In fact, a condition of sorrow and difficulty 
acts as a mainstay against decadence. The un- 
conscious Will has no other way of teaching man 
the law of the contrast of emotions but by con- 
tinuous reversion into sorrow; either sorrow, or 
else it must have varied emotion of beauty, in 
happiness. 



Decadence 

Throughout the following pages I shall be 
obliged to repeat again and again the law of con- 
trasts as it applies to human conduct. (See 
"Beyond Good and Evil.") At present, one class 
of people believe in one set of emotions — the re- 
ligious people, for example — and they oppose the 
class of people who seek expression through an 
entirely opposite order of emotion, such as wine, 
woman, and gayety; the result being that society 
clashes. The rational solution is that each indi- 
vidual should contrast his or her emotions. 

The Will to Beauty is a terrific force that does 
not exhaust itself through one set of emotions. 
When it cannot contrast itself, it goes to deca- 
dence. The decadence of the religious emotion is 
its doctrine of self-denial, its fabrication of 
cruelty in one form or another, devils, evil spirits, 
a hell, the need of repentance, prayer, etc. 

Pleasure, sex, and wine go to decadence also 
when not contrasted, for the same reason that 

24 



the Will to Beauty cannot exhaust itself in that 
one emotion (reality implies contrast), therefore 
its surplus energy turns into quarrel, jealousy, 
and even murder; its contrast becomes religious 
repentance. 

Life holds a secret: it is the rational construc- 
tion of the passion force in man by discovering 
the contrasts. At present man reforms in sorrow 
from what he calls immorality into religion; or 
else he is tempted in fear, from a false religious 
morality into u sin," but nature has intended man 
to go from one to the other without sorrow and 
fear. 

That life and everything in nature proceeds 
by contrasts has been guessed by many before; 
Socrates in the Phaedo speaks of this most clearly, 
but it was always a false dualism. Contrasts and 
variations (lesser contrasts) have never been ap- 
plied to the nature of time and space and cause 
and effect (see "Central Doctrine"), much less 
have moralists had the courage to permit it to 
apply to human conduct. The contrasts chosen 
were contrasts that clashed; a false dualism, of 
god and devil, of good and evil. It was never 
conceived that the universe may be a harmonic 
motive whose contrasts go to complete its har- 
mony the same as day and night and the contrast 
of the seasons. It is because of a false dualism, 
such as rich and poor, spirit and matter, life and 
death, that the world suffers. Life must be rein- 
terpreted. The appropriate contrasts must be 
discovered instead of the contrasts of error. The 
whole universe, i.e., every part of material reality, 
is no different than the contrasted tones of a pic- 
ture. They await interpretation; only then are 
they right. 

25 



Interpretation Is All There Is 

The universe is fluid and flexible; he that has 
discovered its hidden motive has discovered its 
reality. The motive of the universe cannot be 
perverse and contrary to itself. It is force that 
seeks to extricate itself from the clash of power 
into the ensemble of power. 



The Superstate as a Condition of Pure, Undom- 

inated Force Yielding to the Will of 

the Ego 

Pure force is capable of endless transformation. 
Electricity is the best example we have of how 
force accommodates itself to light, heat, and 
power, the fashioning of form, the transmission 
of sound — always, of course, in accordance with 
the casuality of the planet which dominates over 
the ego, instead of superplanetary contrasted ac- 
tion which readily yields to the wish of the ego. 
The transmutation of force in the superstate 
follows the need of the individual. This is the 
improvement upon the ponderous social mode of 
production, which is the only practical economy 
in our planetary condition. 

The superstate as a condition of pure, undomi- 
nated force is as potent to the ego as the primal 
nebulae out of which the unconscious Will of the 
universe fashioned the beauty of the landscape, 
pleasant odor, sound, harmonic color, the good 
taste of food and the nourishment it gives, human 
dress and habitation. 

The planet itself is nothing hut force which 
materialized and will dematerialize. 

26 



When the conscious dual ego, man and woman, 
enter the condition of pure force, they are able to 
create for themselves, in that space which forms 
the circle of their horizon, all the forms of their 
volition. 

In the superstate, the Will of the universe 
emancipates itself from a condition where its 
every effort to realize itself in beauty is marred 
by the forces of opposition and destruction, such 
as the planetary condition is, and establishes itself 
in a sphere of perfection where growth and de- 
cline is transmuted to materialization and dema- 
terialization for the purpose of better serving the 
will of the ego. 

To hold force in control in a sphere of exist- 
ence that is not dominated by a superior force, 
such as the planet which dominates over the will 
of man, where the process of formation can pro- 
ceed for the pleasure of the individual, and the 
process of dissolution is utilized to avoid encum- 
brance, that is the final economy. And what is 
the pleasure of the individual but an environment 
of great beauty in a system so perfect as to leave 
his individuality unhampered, freed from labor, 
but rather moved by the love for creation, and 
when that is attained, what is more wonderful 
than profound love between man and woman, 
who are in the prime of manhood and woman- 
hood, a sincere sexual passion, a thorough intel- 
lectual knowledge of the philosophy of beauty, 
and a keen and flowing wit that rises superior to 
all religion and the possibility of misfortune, and 
greatest of all, deep and sincere emotions which 
reveal to us the meaning of life; for only after 
profound feeling can it be understood; while an 
interval of laughter shows us life's ensemble, ban- 

27 



ishes all apparent difficulty and fits us for a change 
of attitude. From this point of view, it can be 
truly said that most mortals and their environ- 
ments are but half formed, just emerging from 
the nebulae state. 

The coordination of force in forms of reality 
by the ego in the superstate is a reproduction of 
planetary reality, for there is only one kind of 
reality, i.e., the earth; there is no fantastic 
heaven (with the only difference that the process 
of selection is ever in favor of beauty, the human, 
instead of the mechanical, nature augmented by 
art). 

When a condition of reality is attained, it is 
held in realization until the mood of the ego 
changes or the integrating force of the objective 
environment seeks a reaction, for they are both 
related to one another, as the subject is to the ob- 
ject; force maintains itself in actuality or realizes 
itself in matter through contrasts, and the pleasure 
of the ego seeks variation. This condition of 
matter does not make it less real, for the reality 
of matter does not consist in being a clod that en- 
cumbers, but rather the reality and the value of 
matter are measured by the extent to which it 
yields to the needs and the mood of the individual. 
The artist who has attained to the power of vision, 
that is to say, is enabled to see things in ensemble, 
knows the flexibility of so-called real matter, even 
on this plane of our existence, for he is able by 
the mere process of vision to translate what is 
static into flowing light, what is evidently prosaic 
into beauty. 

In undominated space, force must materialize 
itself wonderfully good, with sharp angles and 

28 



contrasts; an example may be taken from astron- 
omy, for magnitude means nothing; it is merely a 
question of means to an end. The unconscious 
motive operates in empty space, the same as the 
superman. The unconscious Will to Beauty sends 
forth the base from which life may rise, while 
the conscious ego coordinates life's climax. 

All astronomy can be reduced to sharp and 
lesser contrasts, seeking to bring force into 
rhythm, which is a law that applies to all motives. 
The sun, the planets, and their moons suspended 
in space have ample play in proportion as they 
are not dominated over by a superior force; they 
lay themselves out with certainty, they float with 
ease, they are like a huge flower whose petals 
radiate from a fiery center. Throughout nature, 
there is this central reality with its secondary 
corollary. 

The ego in the superstate is not dominated 
over; he is independent of the planetary arrange- 
ment. 

The man and the woman are the central reality; 
their changing environment is their corollary. 

The ego on the planet does not notice that he 
is on a planet; all that is evident to him is the 
circle of the horizon; wherever he goes he is the 
center of it. Tangible matter is permitted him 
only as far as he can stretch out his arm (see 
"Preface to the Will in Chemistry") ; the rest is 
color. If by art the same delusion can be pro- 
duced, we have a condition of security from plane- 
tary accident. This is the superplane of art. 

The unconscious Will has made a picture in 
the planetary landscape, which the conscious Will 
to Beauty (the ego) imitates. 

29 



The Unconscious Devil-G-od 

Because of the sincerity of the unconscious mo- 
tive, it cannot arrange itself until its outlet is 
complete, i.e., in the superstate, or until the con- 
scious ego is able to arrange and dominate the 
planetary condition; until that time comes, the 
power that dominates our earth may be looked 
upon more as a perverse force than one of good- 
ness. So merciless is the law of contrasts that 
no human being escapes the reaction of sor- 
row or imperfection under the present conditions ; 
whether we suffer from some other human being, 
from nature, or from ourselves, it is the same. 
Should the ego continue to act in the right direc- 
tion for too long a period, the perverse motive 
would stop his mind; he would soon be forced to 
hurt himself, delude himself, make himself fool- 
ish, or do the like to another. That reaction sat- 
isfies the Will. A fever would take hold of the 
mind if the ego became too smart. It is only 
gradually, by letting each one bear a little of the 
burden, that the conscious arrangement of man 
will become possible. Now that the truth is out, 
it should be easy. Humanity has had enough of 
the terrors of war and famine to permit the true 
philosophy to assert itself. 

The self-chastisement of religion, the prepara- 
tion for death that each person undergoes in old 
age, economic difficulty, sickness, the clash of 
creeds and social clans, all that is the toll paid for 
the permission to live on the planet, and if one 
should be fortunate enough to die young and 
painless, there is a lifetime of imprisonment in- 
communicado in the superstate with the permis- 
sion to see how the husband or wife, parent or 

30 



child is getting along without being able to help 
them if they are in trouble, this is sometimes worse 
than being in trouble oneself. 

Just because the unconscious force arranges 
itself perfectly in the superstate, is the very rea- 
son why it is bad now, but only until man becomes 
conscious. 

Infinity and Chaos 

"The Greeks," says Wilde, "were a nation of 
artists, because they were spared the sense of the 
infinite," but now that the Greek mythos of beauty 
has been superseded by the 'holy spirit,' the 'holy 
ghost,' the 'thing in itself,' and the 'unknowable,' 
we have all sorts of obnoxious speculations about 
the infinite. The following is from Maeterlinck's 
"The Light Beyond" : 

We are plunged in a universe that has no limits in 
time and space. It can neither go forward nor go back. 
It has no origin, it never began nor will it ever end. The 
myriad of years behind it are even as the myriads of years 
which it has yet to unroll. From all time it has been at 
the boundless center of the days. It could have no aim, 
for if it had one, it would have attained it in the infinity 
of years that lie behind us. . . . If it have not become 
conscious, it will never become conscious; if it know not 
what it wishes, it will continue in ignorance, hopelessly, 
knowing all or knowing nothing and remaining as near 
its end as its beginning. If it have no mind, it will never 
have one. If it have one, that mind has been at its climax 
from all time and will remain there. 

The truth of the matter is that the universe is 
an organism that had a beginning; when the first 
piece of matter appeared, time and space came 
with it; it could have no meaning without matter. 
Matter, whose nature is essentially finite, gives 

31 



meaning to time and space, the infinite. When 
an artist like Maeterlinck began to dabble in spir- 
itism, I expected a rival, but the above quotation 
shows plain ignorance; the latter part would seem 
to indicate that he does not even know that the 
universe is an unconscious motive gaining con- 
sciousness through the mind of man. 



Schopenhauer and Nietzsche made the same 
mistake about time having no beginning. See for 
example, Schopenhauer's "Essay on Death" 
("The World as Will and Idea," Vol. Ill, p. 
283). "If time of its own resources could bring 
us to a happy state, then we would already have 
been there long ago; for an infinite time lies be- 
hind us." And further (pp. 284, 285) : "Who- 
ever thus links his existence to the identity of con- 
sciousness and therefore desires an endless exist- 
ence after death for this, ought to reflect that he 
can certainly only attain this at the price of just 
as endless a past before birth." That is exactly 
how the stupid Buddhist-Theosophic idea of rein- 
carnation bases its reasoning. 

Then Nietzsche continues the error with his 
doctrine of the "Eternal Recurrence" ("Will to 
Power," Vol. II, p. 425) : "If the universe had a 
goal, that goal would have been reached by now," 
and : "The universe exists ; it is nothing that grows 
into existence and that passes out of existence, or 
better still, it develops, it passes away, but it never 
began to develop, and has never ceased from pass- 
ing away" (Ibid., p. 428). This only shows that 
he does not know that time is the servant of the 
motive. Time and space are the primal contrasts 
which the motive employs for its expression. 

32 



Extending time to an infinite past by "eternal re- 
currence" does not help. The motive is prior to 
its contrasts. Time has no meaning in itself; it 
has meaning only as the contrast of space. 

If life had started millions of years before, we 
could still ask, Why has it not started sooner? 
When the motive expressed itself with the first 
piece of matter or nebulas, measure in time and 
space began also and not otherwise. Sempiter- 
nity (infinite in the future not in the past) is 
correct, in spite of the fact that it was used for 
theological purposes. It is the same with cause 
and effect, according to the old style of reason- 
ing: the chain of cause and effect kept on until 
it led one on to the contradiction, the absolute 
first cause. In reality, the contrast known as 
cause and effect can be traced a short distance 
only, and then stops when the motive appears. 
The same with time and space ; it is traced to the 
motive whose contrast it is. This chaotic way 
of speaking about time having an infinite past is 
only confusing the world in the head — the empty 
mathematics of the mind, with the reality of a 
universe which is a material organism. 

In abstract number time seems infinite back- 
ward as well as forward. The error began with 
Kant, with u the ideality of time and space," i.e., 
that time and space have no absolute existence 
apart from the subject and that the great reality 
is the "thing in itself." 

The great reality is the Will to Beauty, but it 
has no significance in "itself" "outside of time 
and space." Its meaning lies in the forms it 
evolves. Before the conscious subject appeared, 
time, space, and matter were absolute realities. 
The great secret is contrasts and variations 

33 



(lesser contrasts) within a sphere. The uncon- 
scious motive employs contrasts for its unfold- 
ment, the same as an artist employs light and 
shade and half-tones. 

The mind is so constructed that unless it is in 
close contact with the senses and reality it begins 
to speculate upon the empty mathematics of time 
and space and causality, and is confused if not 
frightened by them. Time accrues to the ego as 
a future immortality. We can see from the na- 
ture of space whose infinity presents itself imme- 
diately, that time possesses a future infinity, for 
time and space are only contrasts of each other; 
the three dimensions of length, breadth, and 
thickness in space become past, present, and future 

in time. 

* * * * 

If after reaching the superstate life came to 
an end, when profound love between man and 
woman, parents and children, has been attained, 
it would be a tragedy far worse than the so-called 
planetary death. The Will of the universe would 
not be a harmonic Will, but a self-destructive one. 
Clear reason must ever base itself on the belief 
that the motive of the universe cannot be con- 
trary to itself. This is another proof of man's 
immortality in future time. 

Man and woman, the conscious climax of the 
unconscious Will, do not have desires that the 
Will does not satisfy when the superstate is at- 
tained, for human mind and volition are only an 
evolved instrument of the unconscious Will to 
Beauty. The ego has no will of its own. The 
great difference is this, that the unconscious Will 
in creating its contrasts resorts to destruction and 
imperfection as an offset to its constructive har- 

34 






monic motive (it cannot do otherwise, for it is 
unconscious and contrasted action is its only pos- 
sible mode of procedure), but the conscious ego, 
once he knows the law of contrasts, is able to 
create a condition where imperfection does not 
enter. This latter is the great secret of human 
happiness which must be elaborated upon in order 
to be appreciated. (See "Beyond Good and 
Evil," and "The Contrast of Emotions.") The 
unknowing mortal is not only not responsible 
for any act of imperfection, but rather he is 
forced to it by the unconscious God of the uni- 
verse; his mind is stopped or obsessed for the 
time being, and if he did not resort to some mode 
ot imperfection as an outlet, the unconscious mo- 
tive, which moves him, would destroy him, or 
make him sick, or in some other way realize itself 
in contrasted action, to the sorrow of the ego. 

Under the religio-economic arrangement, the 
objective environment of the ego is not sufficiently 
flexible to permit the law of contrasts to realize 
itself without resorting to imperfection. This 
requires a social order where the philosophy of 
the Will to Beauty is dexterously employed as a 
means of cheating the unconscious Will. Our 
preachers of "good," whether religionists or 
atheistic moralists, do not know that every motive 
automatically seeks its contrasts and variations; 
they would have one do "good" forever. That 
is why they are kept so busy saving humanity 
from sin, and incidentally combating each other. 
Neither is the so-called "immoralist" Will-to- 
power attitude of Nietzsche a solution of the 
problem ; one must be either insane or a pure fool 
blinded by a militarist monarchy around him to 
advocate such ideas; a pure fool, a second Par- 

3S 



sifal, who controls his sex impulse and permits 
it to go to his head and become sublimated into 
a religion of cruelty and hate. The Nietzsche 
idea is the antithesis of Schopenhauer's self-abne- 
gating pessimism. 

Nietzsche the ImmoraJist 

Conscientious people prefer a philosophy of 
life which demands of them to control themselves, 
to be self-sacrificing, to do their duty to some one, 
to help some one. 

They have learned by sad experience that these 
virtues are necessary in our present falsely ar- 
ranged religio-economic social order. They 
would even continue these virtues in an after- 
death state, where angels are eternally busy sym- 
pathizing with each other. The self-sufficiency 
of the artist creator and that of the passionate 
lovers who need no favor from anybody, that 
does not occur to them. (That is all that nature 
seeks to attain.) 

Their conscious God is supposed to enjoy see- 
ing people strain and squirm doing charity to each 
other and other such impossible gymnastics. Peo- 
ple exhaust their fountain of goodness in patch- 
ing up a false social order; they are obliged to 
cover up crude economics with politeness ; but the 
social organism is a unit the same as the ego is a 
unit, and every unit, or ensemble, seeks expression 
in sharp and lesser contrasts. When the arrange- 
ment is false, the contrasts do not complement 
each other but clash with each other instead; so 
that while one class of people insist on morality 
and politeness (while remaining blind all the time 
to the false social arrangement), another class of 

36 



people, equally important in the universe, must 
find an outlet in thievery, anger, and impoliteness. 

All our morality and virtue can only serve the 
exigencies of our present incomplete social order. 
All preaching and every system of ethics is tem- 
porary. It is from this point of view that 
Nietzsche, the first immoralist philosopher, re- 
ceives value and meaning. He himself has gone 
to ridiculous extremes, but he has initiated a 
tendency. 

When nature reaches its flower, whether it be 
a perfect social-economic arrangement on the 
planet or in the superstate of individualism, mor- 
ality can have no meaning. It is to this order of 
inmorality that the superman attains, not to the 
condition of clash of power where the stronger 
dominates over the weaker. The superman at- 
tains to a condition where all the interesting 
"color quality" of the human has full play. Na- 
ture lays itself out so that there is no strain or 
pull necessary, and the ego finally laughs at God 
and morality. 



37 



BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 

At the beginning of the Russian Revolution, 
the story of a mad monk went around, who made 
his home with the royal family, causing much 
mischief. When asked how one ought to live,, 
his advice was: "Sin and repent," "Sin and re- 
pent." This monk was not so very mad, or else 
we must let a madman teach us the truth. This 
is precisely how the Will of the universe moves 
people. The unconscious motive cannot teach 
people the law of contrasted action, and so a poor 
innocent person, fearing God and believing in 
religion, goes through life burdened with sorrow 
and self-chastisement, believing himself impelled 
by a lower nature, a devil, or surrounded by evil 
spirits. We have it from the servant-maid in the 
family of Count Leo Tolstoy that the Count was 
wont to get up in the middle of the night and 
bolster up his ascetic idealism by regaling him- 
self with meat and vodka. This, if true, is no 
defamation of Tolstoy's character; it merely helps 
to make him human. 

A sincere human being is a wonderful being 
that calls forth love. He should never be placed 
in embarrassing circumstances; neither need any- 
body presume sufficient authority to preach to 
him. Tolstoy was a sincere man, but no more 
than the millions of Russian peasants or any sin- 
cere man who could find no elaborate expression 
for his secret emotions. His philosophy of Chris- 
tian idealism was false. 

38 



To go from the pleasures of wine, women, and 
song to the religious ecstasies of a humble peasant 
in a lone forest, as he did, that precisely is the 
true contrasted action, and it will be a glorious 
day for mankind when that law is understood 
throughout the world. This is the point I wish 
to emphasize. Remember this, my sincere friends 
who have been perplexed until now; it means the 
end of trouble, of self-chastisement. 

Instead of being pushed by unconscious nature 
to reform from one condition into the other, take 
the reins in your own hand and recognize the law 
of contrasted action as the great truth. You must 
acquire the habit not to denounce in the period 
of one emotion that which is opposed and con- 
trasted to it, but give each its time. Wait, and 
let an interval of humor intervene, and your life 
will flow on like a singing brook. To be sincere 
and yet to manipulate life as if you were an actor 
on a stage, that is the highest wisdom. This at 
last is beyond good and evil, not Nietzsche's 
"noble" man, the empty-headed aristocrat. 

To read the section "What is Noble" in his 
volume "Beyond Good and Evil" is to fill one 
with contempt. Such sentences are exemplary: 
"The noble type of man separates from himself 
the beings in whom the opposite of this exalted, 
proud disposition displays itself; he despises 
them." Or: "The noble man also helps the un- 
fortunate, but not — or scarcely — out of pity, but 
rather from an impulse generated by the super- 
abundance of power." To think of the whimper- 
ing little children, the bashful youths and maidens, 
loving men and women, waiting for a favor from 
one man, or one group of men, who hold power or 
wear a theatrical military costume, when society 

39 



might arrange itself so that there would be no 
economic problem in evidence. Nietzsche is their 
lackey, not the helpless one who must sell himself 
for bread. 

If it were not for the fact that Nietzsche made 
some advance in metaphysics, it would be idle 
even to consider such a fool. The case of 
Nietzsche is very simple after all; once he adopted 
the idea of the Will to Power, he was obliged to 
carry that to the limit or retract the central prin- 
ciple, but his followers are poor simpletons indeed. 

Nature guarantees riches and a perfect physical 
form to all in the superstate; that is the first 
thing; the poverty, the embarrassment only means 
that the unconscious Will to Beauty could not as 
yet rise exultant, and so it spends itself in sorrow ; 
it is left for us to create a state of art. Religious 
emotion only means that the Will to Beauty pe- 
riodically seeks its flower, but there is no greater 
perversion of the truth than the doctrines of 
theism. 

He that has not felt profound emotion does 
not know the wonder-meaning of life; he has 
something in store for him to be realized, if not 
here, then in the superstate ; one should not hurry, 
however. 

The important thing is to understand the law 
of contrasted action as it applies to the conduct 
of life, for it is the same with grand emotions as 
with lesser variations. I claim that every motive 
tends automatically to reverse itself, so that in 
advancing any given thought you must take into 
consideration that its opposite will necessarily 
seek expression (unless your idea is already the 
contrast of another) and that all possible restric- 
tions and precautions cannot prevent the expres- 

40 



sion of the contrasted energy in some torm or an- 
other. If not by direct opposition, then by subter- 
fuge, this process goes on throughout nature; e.g., 
when microbes attack a powerful organism (re- 
verse energy is always able to transmute itself 
into some other form of reversion), unless you 
arrive to that social order where the law of con- 
trasts and variations can operate without causing 
injury to another. 

Humanity has not yet realized that sphere of 
noble activity, not because it has not the power 
to do so, but because it does not know how. The 
false teachings of Christianity, its degradation of 
human energy into repentance and into humility 
in the sight of a monstrous God, that is responsi- 
ble for the puffed-up tyrant, for the whole 
Nietzsche idea, its antithesis. The poor, the 
humble, the repentant, the sincere people become 
the easy prey of God and his agents. 

The moralists exhort people to goodness, but 
people are more than good; what should one say 
when people repent for acts that the will of nature 
impels them to do, or when they are contented 
with servitude and humility to idlers, when the 
universe has guaranteed man to become the con- 
scious creator? Here we are, according to the 
best calculations of astronomy, probably on the 
only habitable planet in the sidereal system, the 
one fertile seed that serves as an outlet for the 
Will; all that waste of matter, of incalculable 
binary suns until a condition is attained where the 
clash of forces attains a harmony; yet religion 
will tell you "that the poor we must have with us." 
Are not people better than the God of religion 
and his agents? These moral preachers and mas- 
ters of the capitalist state (they go hand in hand) 

4i 



are often the insincere people, the unripe fruit, 
the products of an imperfect eugenic order; they 
are not as good as the person who is impelled to 
rebel against this unnatural order, the so-called 
criminal; at best they are no different, only that 
they have the faculty for taking advantage, which 
they employ against the sincere who stand im- 
potent before them. 

The person who sees the injustice of repentance 
and humility is better than they and their God, 
unto whose nostrils the prayers of the broken- 
hearted are a fine savor and incense. These mas- 
ters of the religio-economic order, instead of being 
kept by society in a condition of inconspicuous 
activity until their souls are born within them — 
these insincere, these external people, manage to 
take advantage of an imperfect state of society 
to which they are adaptable. 

A profoundly sincere person could not do the 
things that they will do, and so they rise to the 
top where they serve as examples of success and 
respectability to the unsuspecting, and even over- 
awe the sincere people. The humble religious 
man and woman are victims of these people. 

This state of things is an injustice all around, 
for when these masters wake up in the superstate, 
what can they do but curse society that deluded 
them, just as their oppressed victims curse the 
social order that enslaved them. 

Under the present arrangement everybody 
pays his toll of sorrow; for the unconscious Will, 
to which we permit ourselves to be subjected, so 
rules the world that one has to become disgusted 
and hopeless, i.e., suffer to the extreme in some 
form or other, until after having had its fill, the 

42 



Will is able to react and establish itself on a 
secure basis, for as contrasted action is the very 
nature of reality, no other course is open to an 
unconscious force. 

The Will seeks its climax, it knows nothing 
else, and is careless whether it attains it through 
the negative method of sorrow or through the 
positive ecstasy of beauty. The law of contrasted 
action — which is its mode of procedure — is ful- 
filled whether the Will imposes its unconscious 
process upon humanity or whether humanity 
adopts the law of contrasts, outwits the Will, and 
rises beyond good and evil. The religio-economic 
interpretation has a false dualism of spirit and 
matter, good and evil, rich and poor, heaven and 
hell. 

Let us proceed to further detail. The truth 
has been a puzzle, it has eluded everybody. The 
atheistic immoralist and the religious man have 
been opposed to each other. Each carried his 
idea to the point of decadence. Religious emo- 
tion is absolutely unreliable in making a philoso- 
phy of life; the emotion itself may be very pro- 
found, but immediately afterward the person who 
experienced it creates a God, a philosophy of un- 
natural goodness and asceticism, which in reality 
means cruelty to oneself and others, a philosophy 
of nonsense and stupidity in general. 

The immoralist finds expression in what the 
religious man calls "sin." If he is an intellectual 
artist or any man of sincerity, for that matter, 
he becomes sorrowful at intervals and asks him- 
self repeatedly, What will become of me? It is 
in this way that the unconscious Will, which seeks 
a toll for every breath of happiness, becomes sat- 
isfied, as it becomes satisfied with the self-imposed 

43 



philosophy of sorrow of the religious. People 
generally imagine that "spiritual emotion" is con- 
fined to the religious. That is not so. The 
"sinner" has his periods of emotion just as well; 
life brings them out. But the trouble with the 
immoralist is that he cannot be made to believe 
in a future life of immorality. The reverse 
energy, the unconscious devil-god so dominates 
the mind of both the religious man and the "sin- 
ner." Each pays his toll of despondency. Could 
the immoralist believe in a future life, could he 
be made to understand that the universe is so ar- 
ranged that there are no secrets, that while God 
does not know, his parents, grandparents, and 
friends who have died can know if they wish, it 
would be enough to make him insane with shame 
and regret. Human nature is so sensitive, so 
good, that we are ever ready to lash ourselves. 
The atheistic immoralist can only reconcile his 
liberalism on the ground that there is no after- 
life. 

Our family, our friends who have died, live 
and know everything, but they do not judge us 
from the viewpoint of religion. They are not 
religious any more, they are the enemies of re- 
ligion, they are atheists and immoralists. 

They have regained their youth if they died 
when aged, and they have thrown repentance to 
the winds. If they are not sufficiently decided 
in marriage, the chances are that they practice 
polygamy, for there is no law in the sky, and ac- 
cording to the natural law of sexual selection, 
polygamy necessarily precedes monogamy. 2 

2 My observations lead me to the absolutely certain conclu- 
sion that polygamous relationship is continuously practiced in 
the superstate before monogamy is attained; my power of 
claroaudience, which is very strong now (1920) and has been 

44 



They are materialists, they believe in the pas- 
sions and appetites, but they are capable of pro- 
found emotion and are very keen intellectually. 
Their chief perfection lies in the fact that they 
have a perfect economic system, a condition of 
individualism par excellence, such as we cannot 
have, and that they practice the law of contrasted 
action, which enables them to lead a double life. 
They are the highest order of hypocrites. They 
sin without repenting and pray without believing 
in God. Let no one who acquires mediumship or 
comes in contact with the superstate (which, by 
the way, is a thing to be avoided — see "Obses- 
sion") ever assume the religious attitude or be- 
lieve himself censured for his acts. We live in 
a universe in which there is no free will but 
plenty of ignorance as to the meaning of life. 
If we speak against the cruel tyrant, the advan- 
tage-taker, the person who lacks sincerity of char- 
acter and brings sorrow upon others, we must on 
second thought retract our censure; the universe 
is an unconscious force seeking consciousness. A 
person is not responsible if he has inherited cer- 
tain qualities, because his progenitors were mated 
without regard to eugenics, any more than if the 
eugenic arrangement is a fortunate one; it is 
rather an injustice to him. What people do in a 
condition of mediocrity does not matter. One 
ought to be glad that they were born at all. All 
attain to profound emotion and intellectual clarity 
as soon as they enter the superstate. The vision 

good ever since I discovered the philosophy of the Will to 
Beauty, leads me to that conclusion. People who wait in the 
superstate for husbands or wives to die, live with others for 
the time being. The lonesomeness is intense. I can hear 
people conversing in the superstate clear and loud above the 
buzzing conversation of mortals around me. 

45 



of immortality brings out the most musical ecsta- 
sies. Forbid the thought of that monstrous re- 
ligious doctrine about devils and angels. 



The moral code, as it is insisted upon by the 
church and capitalist state, cannot be practiced. 
A little reason will make that clear. 

People might as well say that they want the 
day always and not the night. They insist on 
one motive, one point of view only, and that 
which conforms to that. It is always "morality" 
always "goodness"; but in a world built on con- 
trasts, how is "evil" to exhaust itself? Every 
philosophy so far has insisted on the point of 
view of the "good" and that which conforms to 
it (except Nietzsche, who made himself ridicu- 
lous), without ever realizing that the "good" 
which they insist on, and the more they insist on 
it, the more will it have a tendency to reverse 
into an opposite. The Will is a passion that 
vibrates in contrasted action; what is known as 
religious ecstasy must construct itself upon the 
desires and appetites, upon "sin," its opposite. 

The Will to Beauty as it dwells in the human 
ego does not know the difference between sin 
and virtue. They are opposite poles of one's 
human nature. The solution, then, is this: the 
individual must become a sort of hypocrite, he 
must alternate between the emotions that are 
called "religious" and those that are "sinful." 
When he has had his fill of one he must turn to 
the other. There must be no conscience pangs. 

This means the fullness of health and expres- 
sion. This is nature ! This is the secret of 
secrets ! 

4 6 



This is how the superman lives. 

How can the Will to Beauty, which is the ex- 
pression of power rising to a harmony, arrange 
itself in a cramped condition of poverty and re- 
pression, instead of expression? The Will can- 
not be quiescent, it is a passion; but as it is not 
able to express itself in its fullness in our present 
arrangement, it produces sorrow, on the one 
hand, and breaks out in conflict and cruelty, on 
the other. The conflict must go on by subter- 
fuge, as in deception, or by direct power, as in 
war and competition. It will give the lie to any 
and all religious or ethical pretensions, until the 
Will to Beauty realizes itself in an environment 
permitting the ego to discharge his energy in a 
harmonic wheel of sharp and lesser contrasts. 
At present "power" is operative, i.e., the worst 
elements of human nature, hate and subterfuge, 
competition and war, are employed in the combat 
for existence, when it might all be reduced to 
laughter and placed on the stage only for the 
sake of the interest that realism provides, and 
the trashy romanticism which now soothes the 
nerves of the overworked populace be relegated 
to churches and asylums. Under socialism 
"power" is raised to humor and to art. Art 
makes reality more real without hurting any one. 

But the thing I wish to impress is this: that 
under the most perfect economic condition human 
nature would still make sorrow for itself without 
a knowledge of the law of contrasted action. 
People would still be obsessed with the idea of 



"sin." 



An emotion remains good if it is not analyzed 
too much but is rather in due time contrasted 
with an emotion of an opposite nature. People 

47 



think about their emotions in time of leisure, when 
their mood is probably different; it is in this way 
that the idea of sin originated. When people 
have once grasped this philosophy, the religious 
and ethical preachers who now live on the sorrow 
and fear of humanity will be obliged to look for 
other recreation; for, the truth once known, what 
need is there of moralizing? Besides, it is their 
doctrine of repression which causes an outbreak 
in unlooked-for directions. In this way they 
make more work for themselves. 

To rise beyond good and evil, complete sex 
expression in romance and beauty should be con- 
trasted with poetic-religious emotion; then for 
the lesser contrasts, art, craftsmanship or labor, 
and the love of nature, which should not be de- 
stroyed by mechanism, should be contrasted with 
clear intellect and abundant humor, social gath- 
erings, the theater, the burlesque, communal 
dwellings, free relationship among young people, 
speaking without an introduction, communal din- 
ing rooms, eating, drinking, vulgar laughter, ma- 
terialism, socialism, atheism. 

The Nature of Art and Realism as Opposed to 
the Subliminal and the Infinite 

That life is not evolutionary continuously but 
rather seeks the climax of beauty and then stops, 
not being able to go any farther, as it has no 
need of going any farther, is evident by the nature 
of art. The idea of infinity, infinite growth, is 
chaotic. Art seeks a boundary in form; to im- 
prove beyond a certain limit is to destroy or 
spoil. The artist will conceive a thing of beauty 

4 8 



in poetry, music, or painting that all his future 
experience will not surpass. 

A great genius, or a woman of wonderful 
beauty, with a nature profoundly ecstatic or a 
soul shrouded in deep pathos appears, or a race 
physically perfect like the Greek; they come and 
go everywhere without regard to the world's 
evolutionary period. Of course, life is evolution- 
ary in the short distance it traverses until it 
reaches its objective, but in reality nature is only 
a reversion from the unconscious to the conscious 
Will to Beauty, as the negative produces the posi- 
tive in photography. When once attained, beauty 
variates from one mode of expression to another, 
or else it properly seeks a contrast in luxurious 
pleasure, intellectual clarity, wit, and humor. 
Sorrow is the negative mode of expression of 
nature's will, and therefore reacts into a mode of 
discord. The super ego lives rooted to the real- 
ism of the earth and is not averse to the human, 
all too human; he eats, evacuates, and cohabits. 
It is on the planet under the influence of religion 
and economic stress that the genus homo passes 
through the angelic period. Were the individual 
to continue evolving to what the religious call 
perfection, he would become godly, spiritual, 
ghostly, unreal; he would frighten people. Art 
has a boundary; reality has a top and bottom. 
It is only the spiritualist that sublimates reality 
into fantastic idealism. 



Nature is a passion for beauty that appears 
wherever it is permitted, even in a condition of 
error, through every period of history; if it is 
insufficient, it destroys itself for a greater order 

49 



of beauty; if it attains a climax on the planet, it 
seeks a condition of security in the super-state. 
Above all, it seeks integration in forms of reality. 

All the arts are subservient to the art of life, 
which is sincere love and passion between a man 
and a woman who have attained to the maturity 
of emotion and physical beauty, whether on 
earth or in the superstate, by gradual growth, 
when the conditions are favorable, or through 
the contrast of sorrow, when unfavorable. Love 
of sex may variate in polygamy until a condition 
of monogamy is reached; it is then that the 
highest love is made possible. In a sphere yield- 
ing to the will the perfectly mated couple attain 
to happiness. 

As all the arts are but the transmutation of 
the energy of an emotion, so the wonderful 
woman holds within herself every mode of wo- 
manly expression possible; every fashion with its 
correlated environment from aristocratic luxury 
to peasant simplicity is within her power of dis- 
simulation; this precludes the possibility of the 
infatuation which art lends to polygamy. Her 
profound ecstatic nature makes of her the god- 
dess that man worships and yet controls by his 
predominating intellect. The superman and his 
wife become a genus that does not wish to be 
different, the part of a constellation; they have 
no need of further evolution, or they would cease 
to be human. 



50 



CENTRAL DOCTRINE 



Si 



The Nature of Time and Space— and Cause 
and Effect 

The sharp contrast and its variations (lesser 
contrasts) 

Time and space are contrasts. Space permits 
matter to have form, time permits the continuity 
of a form. Were time alone to exist, the mind 
would perceive one impression, one thing only, 
one formless idea of matter (for it takes space to 
give it form). Space permits more than one 
object to exist. Were space alone to exist, the 
mind would be able to perceive many objects, but 
they would all disappear in a flash. Time gives 
it duration. Matter combines within itself the 
rigid unchangeable nature of space and the fleet- 
ing course of time. Time is always narrowed 
down to the merest point — the present moment — 
but the very nature of space is infinite extension. 
Space shows its infinity immediately, but the in- 
finity of time is for the future. It is from imme- 
diate infinity of space that we can reason a future 
infinity of time, for they are only contrasts of 
each other, the primal contrasts of the uncon- 
scious motive of the universe, whence they receive 
their birth and origin. When the Will expressed 
itself in matter, time and space appeared simul- 
taneously. A time and space or matter with an 
infinite past is a chaos. Matter, the finite, gives 
meaning to time and space, the future infinite. 

53 



Cause and Effect (Matter) 

The variations (or lesser contrasts) 

This innocent-looking proposition regarding 
the nature of time and space and cause and effect 
is the triumph of modern philosophy; many have 
stumbled on that and none have solved it until 
now. The transcendentalism of Kant which 
Schopenhauer improved upon is a very imperfect 
presentation of the nature of reality. The rela- 
tion of subject and object is only one contrast 
among many. If such a thing as a secret order 
existed that guarded a truth sphinxlike through- 
out the ages, it could reveal no secret more pro- 
found, affecting our minds, affecting our actions, 
affecting the whole of unconscious and conscious 
nature, than the following sentences: — 

1. The motive of the universe can find expres- 
sion only through contrasted action, for there is 
nothing else. 

2. The inner meaning of cause and effect in 
nature is contrasted action. 

3. The sense of cause and effect in the mind, 
the "principle of sufficient reason," as Schopen- 
hauer calls it, is the sense of contrasts. 

4. All contrasts flow into their motive, where 
they are lost. 

The great success of Kant was that he hit upon 
a very important contrast, the relation between 
subject and object. But the relation between sub- 
ject and object is not all; it is one contrast among 
many. 

The idealism of Kant only served to raise 
matter from the static nature with which it was 
regarded; otherwise it is false. Nietzsche began 
to understand that the relation between subject 

54 



and object is not all there is of reality; he saw 
that the whole universe is an interpreting force 
which employs the various forms as a means of 
self-enhancement. (See the "Will to Power in 
Science," in the "Will to Power," Vol. II.) But 
what means the Will employs is the secret of 
secrets he did not know. Schopenhauer could find 
no escape from the Kantian transcendentalism, 
and Nietzsche's doctrine of "eternal recurrence" 
is evidence that he confused actual time and space 
with the empty mathematical form of it in the 
mind. (See "Infinity and Chaos.") 

Now to return to the nature of cause and ef- 
fect, the variations of time and space. I have 
but to quote Schopenhauer ("The World as Will 
and Idea," Vol. I, pp. 10, n). Although 
Schopenhauer does not know that cause and effect 
is equivalent to contrasted action, he gives a good 
explanation of it. 

Whoever has recognized the law of causation has com- 
pletely mastered the nature of matter, for matter is noth- 
ing more than causation, as any one will see at once if he 
reflects. Its true being is its action, nor can we possibly 
conceive of it as having any other meaning. Only as 
action does it fill time and space. The action of matter 
upon itself is the condition of its existence. Cause and 
effect thus constitutes the whole nature of matter. The 
nature of all material things is therefore very appropri- 
ately called in German, Wirklichkeit ; in English, "actu- 
ality," a word which is more expressive than Realitat, or 
"reality." Thus, the whole being and essence of matter 
consist in the orderly change which one part of it brings 
about in another part. What is determined by the law 
of causality is not merely a succession of things in time, 
but this succession with reference to a definite space, and 
not merely existence of things in a particular place, but 
in this place at a different point of time. Change implies 

55 



always a determined part of space, and a determined part 
of time together and in action. Thus causality unites space 
with time; that is to say, matter must take to itself at 
once the distinguishing qualities both of space and of 
time, however much these may be opposed to each other. 

We see from the above that matter is the lesser 
contrast of time and space. 

Time and space are contrasted infinities, but 
cause and effect can only take place within the 
circle of the stellar system. Beginning with such 
contrast as the centrifugal and centripetal action 
of sun and planet, thence to other variations, 
such as the contrasted nature of heat and light, 
the contrasts of the elements, and then ad infin- 
itum, or else it is an ordinary contrast; i.e., the 
changes that take place in matter, with reference 
to a particular space, in a different period of time, 
as Schopenhauer describes. Only it must be re- 
membered that the contrast is not always in evi- 
dence. When the motive or Will receives promi- 
nence, the contrast remains subdued. This is a 
rule throughout nature, and is in itself a contrasted 
mode of procedure, for Motive and contrasts are 
also opposites. Then the motives contrast each 
other. The motive appeals to the emotions; it 
is not analyzed by the mind; the mind sees in it 

mystery. 

* * * * 

Unconscious nature is an interpreting force 
that tires of monotony the same as the ego would 
tire of seeing only contrasted action. There is 
the mind and there is the heart. 

Reality is composed of both the motive and 
its contrasts, just as the ego is composed of the 
senses and emotions, on the one hand, and the 
mind whose nature is contrast, on the other. 

56 



These two do not mix but are of a nature entirely 
different one from the other: You cannot reason 
about the motive. The motive must he felt. This 
is of the utmost importance to understand, as it 
explains the nature of reality. The ego in his 
reasoning and feeling does exactly what uncon- 
scious nature does in motive and contrast. The 
conscious ego is a concentration of unconscious 
nature. 

Cause and effect, as we know it in our present 
planetary state, is only one mode of reality; its 
inner meaning is contrast. Cause and effect is 
either a mode of contrasted action or it is noth- 
ing. A motive only needs contrasted action to 
attain reality. Contrasted action is reality; there 
is no other reality. 

The Will to Beauty need not always be in evi- 
dence as the vivifying motive; nature employs 
nether motives, upon which it rises, such as the 
Will to Power, or mechanist utility. The same 
as in the construction of an edifice, the interpreters 
who see only mechanism and power do not see 
the climax. 

The thing to be remembered is that time and 
space is not a "flux," as Schopenhauer and 
Nietzsche would have it, but an actual reality. 
Flux is nebulous. The mediocre philosophy of 
Bergson is based on that, is, in fact, the elonga- 
tion of that error. By sublimating the intangible 
flux he gets "duration," then "spirit," whatever 
that may be. 

Cause and effect are useful words only, em- 
ployed for designating a mode of procedure in 
our planetary state. The same is true of all 
"laws" of nature; the ponderous planetary mo- 
tive brought these laws into evidence. The ego 

57 



in the superstate is able to create matter without 
regard to planetary cause and effect; another kind 
of cause and effect (contrasted action) makes its 
appearance. 

The growth of a tree, for example, is slow and 
cumbersome; it depends on so many other ele- 
ments to sustain it — on climate, soil, an endless 
chain of cause and effect; it is different again 
when an artist paints that tree, or when a Hindu 
fakir-medium produces a materialization of a 
tree. Reality assumes different forms in each of 
these examples, but contrasted action is the un- 
derlying base in all of them. Planetary law and 
cause and effect will disappear, but contrast will 
remain. 

The mind that proceeds from reason to conse- 
quent, the "principle of sufficient reason," as 
Schopenhauer calls it, is not a metaphysical fac- 
ulty at all, but is rather a means of making the 
ego habituated to his environment. The artist is 
the true metaphysician. That is to say, the mind 
cannot be depended upon to discover any phi- 
losophical truth, for its nature is to go from 
cause to effect, from effect to cause. It is for 
this reason that all philosophers stopped with 
cause and effect. Beyond cause and effect (or 
contrast) the mind sees only mystery. The mind 
ever inquires for a cause, but the mind does not 
know that its search for a cause is necessitated 
by the need for contrasted action. The artist, 
however, is able to see that the contrasts flow into 
the motive and stop there. 

I find that there is nothing a priori about the 
mind. I find that there is only vision and deduc- 
tion from vision. 

The a priori idea only misled Kant and his 

58 



followers into believing that time, space, and 
causality had an infinite past, just because the 
empty numeral one could be divided as well as 
multiplied to infinity. The mind is the amplifier 
of the senses, otherwise it is nothing. With the 
senses and emotions rests sincerity. The mind 
should not be trusted away from the senses. The 
intellectual artist is more capable of perceiving 
the truth than professional philosophers. Scho- 
penhauer's discovery of the Will was an artistic 
vision. Any painter or musician might have 
noticed that a motive is expressed by light and 
shade and half-tones, or contrasts and variations. 
* * * * 

In mechanics, the double-acting lever goes 
from the wheel and to the wheel. 

This serves to illustrate how all cause and 
effect, whose real meaning is contrasted action, 
can be traced only to the motive, and from the 
motive, and stops there. The wheel is the 
mechanist, or mathematical symbol, of the motive. 

Concentration into a Center and Radiation from 
a Center 

This is a process evident throughout nature; 
it is the means which nature employs for inte- 
grating its central motive. Concentration into a 
center and radiation from the center can be re- 
duced to contrasted action of course, only that it 
is a special process in nature. It explains many 
things that could not be understood otherwise; it 
explains why the animal does not survive in the 
superstate. The conscious ego, man, is the center. 
It explains the centrifugal and centripetal force, 
force of sun and planet. 

59 



Nature, likewise, indicates that sex is its cen- 
tral motive by the construction of the adult form. 
The sex passion alternates with the adoration of 
external nature. The entire planetary arrange- 
ment is raised to the superplane of art. The dual 
ego, man and woman, instead of being subservient 
to the gravitational center of the planet, are re- 
moved from the planet to a condition where the 
external environment is magically yielding to their 
will; this insures their safety. This process is 
the process of concentration. The whole stellar 
system might then clash and disintegrate, for it 
must have an ending as it had a beginning. (See 
also "Preface to the Will in Chemistry.") 



60 



THE WILL IN BOTANY 

The plant is a perfect symbol. The Will to 
Beauty proceeds in the same way from root to 
flower as the plant does. The leaves on the op- 
posite sides of the stem are a symbol of the 
process of dual contrast rising towards the flower. 
The flower itself represents the climax of human 
ecstasy. The plant rooted to the ground repre- 
sents the basis in materialism. 

Nature has not intended that emotion, the 
flower of the human heart, should be wrung out 
of man and woman as the result of hard condi- 
tions; only false religion sanctions that. The 
plant refuses to grow unless it has sunshine and 
every condition of its being is fulfilled. So life 
should proceed in laughter, health, and abun- 
dance. If man is unable to realize that condition 
on the planet on a basis of socialism, the super- 
state will bring that realization through indi- 
vidualism. 

The plant does not show the process whereby 
it gathers its food, how its leaves take carbon 
from the atmosphere for the purpose of building 
up its structure, how its roots gather the ammonia 
salts. So in man's life mechanism should be 
hidden. 

Root, stem, and leaves are the organs of nutri- 
tion; the flower is an organ of reproduction, it is 
a perfect symbol of sex beauty. The pistillate 

61 



flowers receive the pollen from the staminate 
flowers; by their color and perfume they exhibit 
an inner passion. Only in man's life the harmony 
is broken! Based on discord, the chords that 
construct life's melody cannot rise and unite ex- 
ultant in beauty, and so their numbers break in 
sorrow. With the evolution of the animal the 
Will starts a more complex harmony. The at- 
tainment of that harmony is therefore deferred 
until the ego becomes fully conscious of nature's 
motive on the planet or in the superstate. In the 
childhood of the race man lived close to simple 
nature, and his religion of fantasy and myth was 
lyric and flutelike as the shepherd's song in the 
spring, but now the Cross and the Thorn Crown 
hide a stain of blood. Our civilization is so 
complex, science is so profuse in detail, beautiful 
myth does not suffice. Our foolish religio-eco- 
nomic system makes war, competition, sickness, 
and sorrow; it quells the thirst for life. 

The same phenomenon is observed in chemistry 
when an element that otherwise takes its place in 
a harmonic motive, by being reversed, becomes 
virulent, corrosive, or explodes. The reason for 
this becomes evident when we realize that every 
organism lives by the expression of its energy, not 
by being quiescent. 

The fact that there is catastrophe is in itself 
evidence that the philosophy on which the social 
unit is built produces the clash. Clear reason 
must ever base itself on the principle that the Will 
of the universe holds within itself a harmonic pos- 
sibility, for how can a force remain at variance 

with itself? 

* * * * 

62 



Nature has well provided that man should love 
the woman's emotional nature, and by his intel- 
lect should guard her and the rest of the human 
family against sorrow of any kind. Instead of 
seeking out the rational basis of life, they send 
prayers to a God that does not hear, and cheat 
and rob each other by subterfuge. They live each 
in his own prison house, a life of mock individual- 
ism, a life in which clear reason has no part. In- 
stead of business and the drudgery of labor, 
nature intended the man to be an artist and a 
philosopher with the utilitarian part of life sub- 
servient, reduced to a minimum, relegated to the 
machine, hidden — a race that lives in the sun and 
pure air, surrounded by oxygen producing trees, 
with bodies beautiful to look at. 

Marvelous is the human form, wonderful the 
color of pure health; its possibilities are greater 
than we can at present imagine, the face re- 
splendent with idealism, the sincere heart that 
does not know the fraud of business. How won- 
derful is the added dignity of appropriate dress 
modified according to climate, and the stateliness 
of white-columned architecture in a beautiful 
landscape ! 

* * * * 

An example of unconscious harmonic action: 

Pollination by means of water as illustrated by 
the tape grass (Vallisneria). The individual at 
the left bears a spike of staminate buds (k). 
These spherical buds (a) become detached and 
rise to the surface, where, as they float, they open 
and expose the stamens. The pistillate flowers 
are borne on long stems which come just to the 
surface of the water. Pollination is accomplished 

63 




by those staminate flowers which float against the 
pistillate ones. After pollination the stem of the 
pistillate flowers coils into a spiral, withdrawing 
the ovary below the surface. The fruit develops 
under the water. (After Coulter.) 



An example of contrasted action: 

The adaptation between flower and insect by 
which the former secure pollination and the latter 
food are endless, but the contrasts are not always 
as evident as in the pollination of the smyrna fig 
by a wasp, which thrives in wild caprifigs. The 
fig tree is diclinous; i.e. } some trees bear staminate 

6 4 



(male) flowers, others the pistillate (female) 
flowers, or, if both are present, the staminate 
flowers are sterile on some trees while the pistil- 
late are sterile on others. The caprifig is not 
edible, but its wasp is able to fructify the flowers 
of the smyrna fig, which otherwise will not perfect 
fruit. 

The male of the fig wasp is without wings and 
never reaches the symrna fig tree ; the male wasps 
die within the caprifigs in which they are born, but 
the female has wings and sawlike mandibles. 

The female escapes and carries with her the 
pollen with which she becomes dusted as she 
crawls about within the floral cavity. The escap- 
ing female then cuts her way through the scales 
which interlock over the apex of the half-grown 
fig; she loses her wings in entering; after laying 
her eggs, she dies in the fig and is absorbed by the 
vegetable cells. 

Those which enter the pistillate inflorescences 
of the edible smyrna fig have no progeny, but are 
of service in pollination; the styles of the fertile 
pistillate flowers are so long that the wasp cannot 
deposit her eggs in a favorable place, and if she 
does lay eggs, they also perish, but those which 
enter the staminate caprifigs produce progeny, 
but are of no service in pollination. In the 
staminate caprifigs, there are numerous sterile 
pistillate flowers with short styles, which permit 
the female wasp to lay her eggs. 



Sometimes the clash of contrasts is most evi- 
dent in nature ; at other times the motive assumes 
importance, and the contrasts are uninteresting or 
not evident, but the contrasts are always there, 

65 



for it is nature's only means of attainment. This 
we may recognize throughout nature; sometimes 
the contrasts, at other times the motive. It is 
this which Schopenhauer intimated by the "World 
as Will and Idea." He should have called it 
"The Will and its Contrasts." This is itself a 
contrasted mode of procedure, for contrast and 
motive are opposed to each other. 
* * * * 

The flower and root are sharp contrasts, the 
leaves are the lesser contrasts. 



66 



THE WILL IN ASTRONOMY 

The most wonderful conclusion of modern 
astronomy is that the vast stellar system is a unit, 
that the Milky Way is practically circular like 
the hub of a wheel, with our solar cluster near 
the center. 

The Will has actually formed itself into a gi- 
gantic flower; the Milky Way, or Galaxy, is its 
corolla, thirty-six hundred light years across in 
diameter with a central calyx that holds the seed; 
i.e., the planet that produces man. 

The staminate sun acts upon the pistillate 

.; \:' ' "' "*>* « MILKY WA Y 

\ I f m v r •«- -£; — \7" — «-»—• pOS ITION OF 

"•** J: '. .;'-: "'-*. OUR 5 OLAR -SYSTEM 



COROLLA 

- PJSTIL 

\ STAMPS 



OVARY(coa/taia//a/& 

THE SEED) 



The process of concentration into a center. 

67 



earth. The sun is placed in about the same posi- 
tion as the stamens of a flower, but in the stellar 
flower the pistillate earth cannot occupy the very 
center, as is the case in the ordinary bisexual 
flower, owing to the great distance. In infinite 
space the ego is always the center. 

To the primitive Will setting out upon the task 
of creation, the circle with its central nucleus is 
the simplest expression of its nature. It is defi- 
nitely shown in the center of gravity of star and 
planet, and its greater significance becomes evi- 
dent in the conscious ego surrounded by the circle 
of the horizon. It is the symbol of the center 
of emotion within its sphere of contrasts and 
variations. 

The ecstatic woman is the central emotional 
motive and man with the predominating intellect, 
the nature of which is dual contrast, is her con- 
cordant corollary. The sex center, in the exact 
center of the adult body, is the means of issue. 

In order to realize itself in a fitting organism, 
the Will proceeds from stellar harmony to the 
wonderment of landscape, its color and sound, its 
moonlight, its sunrise and sunset, until it finds 
itself in the human form that will express its 
emotion. 

Without a knowledge of metaphysics, and in 
spite of his religious inclinations, or perhaps be- 
cause of his religious inclinations, Alfred R. Wal- 
lace, in his book "Man's Place in the Universe," 
gives a thorough exposition of the conclusions of 
modern astronomers, and as if guided by a clear 
vision, he develops the conception of the unity of 
the stellar system, culminating in a central seed 
(the man-producing planet) to a logical finish. 

I quote Mr. Wallace freely throughout this 
section in order to save time; the facts remain 

68 



the same, the discoveries of astronomy do not 
belong to any one man. 3 

It seems that the entire region of the Milky 
Way, or galaxy, is unsuited for the formation of 
a life-producing planet, 

on account of the excessive forces there in action, as shown 
by the immense size of many of the stars, their enormous 
heat-giving power, the crowding of stars and nebulous 
matter, the great number of star-clusters, and especially 
because it is the region of "new stars" which imply col- 
lisions of masses of matter sufficiently large to become vis- 
ible from the immense distance we are from them. Hence 
the Milky Way is the theater of extreme activity and 
motion; it is comparatively crowded with matter under- 
going continual change, and is therefore not sufficiently 
stable for any periods to be at all likely to possess habit- 
able worlds. 

It is to the center of the Galactic circle then, 
the solar cluster, that we must look for planetary 
systems suitable for life-development, but here 
we are confronted by new difficulties, the discov- 
ery that most stars which to the eye appear as one 
star are really double or multiple star-systems, 
known as binary and variable stars. 

A binary system is composed of two stars re- 
volving around each other. Many thousands of 
binary stars were discovered by the telescope, and 
when the power of the telescope failed, the spec- 
troscope opened up a new field of discovery, so 
that now the telescopic binaries are only a small 
portion of the spectroscopic binaries. Professor 
Campbell of the Lick Observatory has stated his 
opinion that as accuracy of measurement increases 
"the star that is not a spectroscopic binary will 
prove to be a rare exception." Variable stars 
form a small proportion of the binary system, 

3 The reader is requested to read the book, "Man's Place 
in the Universe." 

69 



and are to be found among the spectroscopic 
binaries; they are composed of two or more stars 
revolving around each other, with a dark com- 
panion very close to it, which obscures it either 
wholly or partially during every revolution. Of 
course these can only be discovered when the 
plane of their orbit is directly within our line of 
sight, otherwise the eclipse would not be noticed. 

Binary and variable stars sometimes revolve 
so close to each other that the two stars are 
often in absolute contact, forming systems of the 
shape of a dumb-bell. Their periods of revolu- 
tion vary from less than nine hours to more than 
a thousand years, as in the twin stars of Castor. 

It appears then that the suns subdivide on the 
same principle as the well-known explanation of 
the origin of the moon, by disruption from the 
earth; but owing perhaps to their intensely heated 
gaseous state, they seem usually to form nearly 
equal parts. Another drawback against the prob- 
ability of suns possessing attendant habitable orbs 
is that when their density can be determined, they 
are found, on the average, to be only one-eighth 
of our sun, so that even though many of them are 
considerably larger than our luminary, it is evi- 
dent that they must be wholly gaseous, but the 
stars in general, according to Professor New- 
comb, are of much smaller mass than our sun, so 
these cannot be depended upon to retain sufficient 
heat and light for the great number of years it 
takes to develop life; but that which settles for- 
ever the question of life on other systems, accord- 
ing to Wallace, is the fact that all stars in the 
solar cluster are either resolved to binary sys- 
tems or else they are in the process of aggrega- 
tion, and if there should be two or three suns 
such as ours is, they have not yet been discovered. 

70 



We would then be obliged to take into considera- 
tion the nicety of arrangement between a planet 
and its sun without which life could not proceed. 

Importance of Our Central Position 

The matter comprising our present stellar sys- 
tem must be an evolution from a simpler and more 
chaotic form. The harmonic motive in forming 
the Galactic ring has thereby protected the cen- 
tral solar constellation from too forcible an on- 
rush of meteoric matter, for the Galactic ring is 
attracting the great mass of matter to itself. It 
is now generally agreed among astronomers that 
the solar system has not come about by the con- 
densation of nebulae alone, but by the aggregative 
meteoric matter; for the cold of stellar space, 
which is sufficient to solidify hydrogen, would 
turn a diffused nebula into meteoric dust almost 
instantaneously. The powerful magnetic attrac- 
tion of the Milky Way retained the great mass of 
matter and permitted only a comparatively small 
portion to enter the central solar cluster; were it 
not for that, all the matter would rush to the cen- 
ter. Our sun was built up from this meteoric mat- 
ter until it attained its maximum of heat and size, 
every added collision adding to it; a portion of 
this matter went to the planets, but mostly to the 
greater body the sun, or its neighboring suns. 

A negligible amount of this meteoric matter is 
still found in our system. The position which 
astronomers allot to our sun, a position towards 
the outside of the central aggregation of suns 
(see illustration) is the most favorable for grad- 
ual growth by accretion, and thus provides a 
mode of keeping up the sun's heat during the 
long geologic periods necessary to the gradual 
formation of life. 

71 



A rapid aggregation of heat-producing matter 
and an equally rapid cooling would naturally be 
inimical to life. Then again, the very center 
of the solar cluster would be a place where me- 
teoric matter would not reach continuously from 
the outside, as it would be received by those suns 
preceding it. A place where gravitative force 
is small, motions produced there would be slow, 
collisions rare, a place for dark bodies, the very 
contrary of the region in or near the Milky Way 
which is a region of intense and uncontrolled ac- 
tion. Thus the position allotted to our sun would 
be the most favorable. 

Essential Life Conditions 

No amount of explanation by mechanism alone 
can explain the harmonic relation of our planet's 
distance from the sun, its mass, and the obliquity 
of its ecliptic, which as we shall see later, are the 
first conditions for life-development. Chance 
does not explain it, for that would imply a uni- 
verse without a motive. Such a universe could 
not evolve one human mind and the inspiring pas- 
sion of beauty. Mechanism, cause and effect, 
sees only the immediate detail, but there is always 
the inspiring motive which employs mechanism 
and cause and effect. Our mind, as well as our 
environment, proceeds by contrasted action 
(which is equivalent to cause and effect and mech- 
anism) ; it is the only way in which the motive 
can ever attain to realization. The artist, in seek- 
ing to express a motive of beauty or an ensemble 
of nature, finds its contrasted parts wonderful 
and marvelous the more subservient they are to 
the inspiring motive and the less they are re- 
garded in themselves, but the philosopher or 
scientist who proceeds with cause and effect and 

72 



mechanism only, is soon confronted with the 
"unknowable," or else he drifts headlong into 
theism. Theism is the last resort of the incompe- 
tent; there is no excuse for it after Schopenhauer 
and Nietzsche have written. Almost every scien- 
tific book ends with a feeble speculation about 
mind and matter, the life-germ, God, the soul, 
spirit, etc. Let this slight digression be a warn- 
ing to priest astronomers and religious writers, 
people like Wallace, even, lest they assume that 
our planet is a place especially designed by their 
God, the supreme mind, for their Jesus with his 
religion of sorrow and fear. 

Such people had better not commit themselves 
to print, but live with their sincere religious emo- 
tions if they have any. 

Then, again, there is the uninteresting stuff of 
such philosophers as Henry Bergson and William 
James. They call themselves "voluntists" be- 
cause they feed on the sincere thoughts of Scho- 
penhauer and Nietzsche, but they have no inspir- 
ing emotion. 

Our motiveless voluntists, after they have cov- 
ered volumes of waste paper with their obnoxious 
speculations leading one anywhere and nowhere, 
are just as likely as not to turn to the conventional 
God of religion or to the "unknowable" after the 
fashion of Herbert Spencer, who turned to the 
"unknowable" after once deciding that force is 
the basis of matter. 

The harmonic motive is unconscious; it seeks 
to realize itself in a conscious ego with all the 
sincerity and innocence of a force vibrating in 
contrasted action through all the forms of time, 
space, and causality. To a harmonic force, pain 
is negative and contrary to its nature. In other 
words, just as the human ego, who is the indi- 

73 



vidualization of the Will to Beauty, seeks ex- 
pression of his nature in an environment free 
from pain, just so does the unconscious Will seek 
outlet in the line of least resistance, and that, it 
stands to reason, can best be done by having one 
planet only, when pain, owing to inevitable hu- 
man ignorance, would be reduced to a minimum. 
This is a moot question that only actual observa- 
tion can settle; deduction cannot go far without 
vision. If astronomers could discover within 
the same circle as the solar cluster other suns the 
same as ours, it might serve as sufficient ground 
for conjecture that a life-producing planet of the 
same mass as our earth revolves around it. A 
flower has a number of stamens; the stellar flower 
likewise may have a number of suns, the same as 
ours, placed at the same distance from its center 
and circumference. According to Wallace, such 
suns have not yet been found, and even if found 
there is the nicety of arrangement to be consid- 
ered. A flower produces a number of seeds in 
its center, it is true, but these do not all take root, 
because some slight condition is lacking. 

From the standpoint of human reason, it cer- 
tainly seems better to have one planet only that 
will serve as an outlet for the Will, for then pain 
would be reduced to a minimum. As the Will is 
a harmonic motive, it has a strange way of at- 
taining a wonderful concordance in all its parts, 
so that its works appear like human intelligence. 
Human reason is only an amplification of the un- 
conscious Will; it accomplishes what the uncon- 
scious motive holds latent. 

As long as the fires of the sun endure, the flow 
of egos on the planet will go on. Whether this 
number of egos is a sufficient measure of its mo- 
tive we cannot say. Certain it is that if the Will 

74 



had within itself the urge to continue the species 
beyond the number the planet can yield, it would 
create for itself the means for doing so in the 
superstate, for while children cannot be born in 
the superstate at present, the Will might link 
itself in the future to the superstate, when the 
element of pain would be eliminated; for to the 
harmonic Will every evolutionary step is the out- 
growth of the step before. It is merely a question 
of the measure of the Will's volition, for time 
and space, cause and effect are its servant, but 
not a barrier that can prevent its expression. 

However that may be, the essential life condi- 
tions for a successful man-producing planet which 
we are about to consider all seem to point toward 
only one, the globe we live on. 4 

Distance from the Sun 

The first essential condition we must consider 
is the distance of our planet from the sun. Proto- 
plasm, which is the basis of all organic life, is 
sensitive to either extreme of temperature. Nitro- 
gen is the element which gives protoplasm its ex- 
treme mobility, and its proneness to enter into 
combination and change its state of energy with 
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, is confined between 
the temperature of freezing water and 104 F. 
Albumen loses its fluidity and coagulates at 160 
F. Were the earth's temperature to rise or fall 
72 F., life would soon become extinct. 

Now if we consider that the heat derived from 
the sun is inversely as the square of the distance, 
and that at half the distance we would have four 
times as much heat, we can then appreciate the 
importance of our position. 

The planet Mars receives less than half the 

4 After all, the ancient idea that the earth is the center of 
the universe is not so bad. 

75 



amount of the sun's heat that we do, much below 
the freezing point of water. While in the planet 
Venus, the very opposite conditions prevail; it 
receives almost double the amount of heat that 
we do, far too hot for the existence of proto- 
plasm. The other planets are out of considera- 



tion. 



The Obliquity of the Ecliptic 



Were the earth's axis perpendicular to the 
plane of its orbit there would be no change of 
climate anywhere; although it would vary with 
latitude, it would remain forever the same. This 
would be unfavorable to life for the contrasts of 
summer and invigorating winter conduce to the 
best order of civilization; the terrific and contin- 
uous equatorial heat, on one hand, and the un- 
changing cold of the north would endanger the 
temperate zone. 

Were the earth's axis in the plane of its orbit, 
the contrasts of the changing seasons would be 
too strong. The obliquity of the axis permits 
moderate contrasts of spring, summer, autumn, 
and winter in that section of the globe whence the 
best human effort comes, and relegates the sharp 
contrasts to two separate places, the intense cold 
to the arctic zone and the heat to the equatorial 
belt; and even there the obliquity permits varia- 
tion. Another strange example of contrasted ac- 
tion conspiring toward a harmony on the planet 
is the fact that the earth is nearer to the sun in 
winter; in this way moderating the cold, and 
further from the sun in summer, which serves to 
moderate the heat (for the actual winter and 
summer are produced by the slanting ray in the 
winter and the direct sun's ray in the summer). 

The perpendicular and horizontal axes are the 

76 



opposing contrasts, the oblique orbit is the har- 
monic outlet. 

In the distribution of the planets around the 
sun I see again the law of contrasts seeking a har- 
monic outlet; i.e., those that are too near and 
those that are too far from the sun, Mars on one 
side a little too cold, and Venus a little too warm, 
with the earth in about the same position as the 
staminate sun in the stellar flower. 

During the period of aggregation the greater 
amount of meteorites went either to the very 
large planets on the very outside of the solar 
system or to the central sun, thus gradually giv- 
ing the earth its proper mass. (According to the 
law of contrasts, note that the planets were sepa- 
rated from their primary and then built up by the 
aggregation of meteorites.) 5 

The Mass of the Planet 

Upon the mass of the planet, as well as its 
density, depends the amount of atmosphere its 
gravity can retain. The mass of the moon is not 
sufficient to hold a gas as heavy as carbon disul- 
phide, while hydrogen and helium will escape 
from our planet. Evidently the combined mass of 
moon and earth before their separation, was suffi- 
cient to hold the amount of hydrogen that entered 
into the formation of our present quantity of 
water, or else during the period of its aggrega- 
tion by meteorites, the frozen hydrogen that fell 
upon the earth immediately combined with the 
oxygen to form water; for, according to the har- 
monic arrangement, the least flame or lightning- 
stroke is sufficient to ignite and combine the hy- 
drogen and oxygen and form water, but once 

All astronomy can be no more than the harmonic motive 
seeking outlet through contrasted action. 

77 



formed, it is not easily separated. Had our 
planet been larger, the quantity of all gases in- 
cluding hydrogen would have been greater; with 
one tenth more water than we have at present, 
the land would all be submerged; with a greater 
atmosphere, greater winds inimical to life would 
be the result. 

The atmosphere and the water both unite in 
further enhancing the harmonic motive which 
seeks expression on the planet. The contrast of 
heat and cold produces wind in the atmosphere. 
The wind raises microscopic dust particles to a 
great height throughout the planet, which serve 
as a nucleus for water vapor. Without these 
dust particles held in space by a powerful and 
dense atmosphere, the great cloud canopies which 
serve the double purpose of protection from the 
continuous action of the sun, as well as producing 
rain, would be impossible, but condensation would 
follow evaporation. 

All this depends upon the mass of the planet 
compared with its primary, the sun; also, with a 
larger or hotter sun, the planet's relation towards 
it would no longer be the same. The atmosphere 
further serves as a warm blanket that retains the 
sun's heat during the night. 

We see here the action of the contrasted ele- 
ments. Their effort to bring forth the seed, man 
and woman, in the stellar flower, is the same as 
contrasted action necessary to bring forth the 
seed of a plant. See, for example, the complex 
action in the pollination of the fig. (See "The 
Will in Botany.") 

The Distribution of the Oceans and Continents 

The quantity of water on the surface of the 
earth is so great that, were it not for the great 

78 



ocean basins, it would cover the surface of the 
earth nearly two miles. Our satellite, the moon, 
received its origin from the earth during its molten 
condition, forming these great ocean basins that 
are placed opposite each other, and it now con- 
trols the contrasted action of its tides. The moon 
separated from the earth owing to centrifugal 
force generated by its rapid motion, and the tidal 
action of the sun upon its molten interior, causing 
it to break forth at the equator. 

In the distant past the earth's rotation around 
its axis was much faster than it is now, i.e., about 
four hours. It has attained its present harmonic 
period of rotation during the life of man, through 
the tidal pull of the sun and moon on its molten 
interior and its waters, which lengthens the day, 
though only several seconds in a thousand years. 

The Atlantic and Pacific basins both extend to 
an equal distance north and south of the equator; 
the greater mass of matter from the Pacific at- 
tracted to itself the mass of the Atlantic and 
formed the moon. The land area of the globe 
is 28% and the water area is 72%. Without this 
greater surface area of the oceans, there would 
not be sufficient evaporation to supply the land 
with rain. The land, after receiving its water, 
forms brooks and rivers which return to the 
ocean; were it not for the oceans, all bodies of 
water that beautify the landscape and the entire 
harmonic water-system would soon disappear. 
The oceans further tend to equalize conditions 
by distributing their stored-up heat from the equa- 
torial zone to regions that would otherwise be 
cold. This it is able to do, owing to the posi- 
tion of the continents. If the continents were so 
arranged as to occupy the position of the equato- 
rial oceans, the equalizing ocean currents running 

79 



north and south could not have done their work. 

Another factor that aids the harmonic motive 
on this planet is the alternation of day and night. 
The planet Venus presents one face to the sun 
continually, causing, of course, terrible contrasts. 
The same with the planet Mercury. 

Nature is not able to produce a harmony imme- 
diately. It produces the contrasts and then the 
lesser contrasts which serve as more delicate vari- 
ations, in about the same manner as an artist 
proceeds with a picture, only that the motive can- 
not complete itself on the planet. The planet is 
like the blossom which serves for forming the 
seed, but when the blossom falls away, the fruit 
continues to grow around the seed. Every terres- 
trial condition, however harmonic, holds within 
itself an opening for death, a loophole for de- 
struction. The very elements that go to com- 
plete the terrestrial harmony have destructive 
contrasts^so that it still leaves the planet imperfect, 
and when we come to the life of man, supersti- 
tion, war, and an imperfect economic order pre- 
vent a completion of nature's harmonic passion; 
for the unconscious Will to Beauty is not qui- 
escent; it is a terrible force seeking outlet, and it 
is for this reason that to a philosopher like 
Nietzsche it seemed like power trying to exceed 
itself, with all its terribleness and destruction as 
an essential part of it; but it stands to reason 
that a force cannot forever be at war with itself ; 
it must find itself sometime. 

The unconscious motive tries to meet the con- 
scious ego halfway and by complete consciousness 
in an ego it realizes itself. Human emotion is 
the climax of its energy. All its fury is hidden 
under a garb of impotence. 

80 



THE WILL IN EUGENICS 

The true nature of woman is sincerity, or emo- 
tion, to which intellect is subservient. It is evi- 
dently for this reason that the unconscious Will 
to Beauty has chosen her as the fitting outlet for 
the child. The perfect man is intellect coordi- 
nated by emotion or art. The child belongs to 
the mother; according to nature, there is no fa- 
ther; the father is a question of eugenics, unless 
it be the man whom the woman chooses as her 
husband forever. For that matter, the child is 
neither of the father nor of the mother but of 
nature, which employs the contrast of sex and the 
womb of maternity as an outlet for the conscious 
ego. 

The religio-economic arrangement does not re- 
spect nature, but forces a haphazard heredity 
upon the unborn. Sex impulse has nothing to do 
with childbirth and should never be confounded. 
Sex passion is nature's central motive by which 
means it rises to love and to its highest ecstatic 
beauty (otherwise it turns to sorrow as a means). 
The fact that the sex organs in the adult are in 
the exact center of the body is an indication of 
that, according to the law of concentration into 
a center and radiation from a center, which is 
evident throughout nature. 

Sexual selection proceeds from polygamy to 
monogamy and not vice versa. The immortal 

81 



ego cannot decide hastily who shall be his or her 
mate forever. Monogamy is a grand climax that 
only people of profound emotions know the 
meaning of. The man must be profound through 
having lived, through sorrow, or through sincere 
expression in art. The accumulated emotion 
gained in another direction is able to transmute 
itself to a very profound love, but where there is 
no accumulation, there is no concentrated center 
of security. The emotions of the superman are 
very deep. 

A young woman whose very nature is emotion 
is more likely to have attained to the height of 
ecstasy (see, for example, the sorrowful Niobe, 
Murillo's "Madonna," the "Mater Dolorosa" of 
Guido Reni), but a young man, hardly, unless 
through great sorrow, among very sincere people. 

The emotions of most men are only awakened 
at about the age of forty, when they become re- 
ligious; the mind being unable to interpret the 
meaning of emotion, rushes in fear to the religious 
interpretation. Besides, idealistic young people 
have such strange ideas as to what constitutes a 
true marriage. There are religious marriages, 
respectable marriages, and intellectual marriages. 
The more educated and idealistic young people 
are, the more are they likely to be mistaken in 
their marriage, while so-called vulgar and un- 
educated people are more likely to be correct. 
The true basic principle in marriage is the irre- 
sistible attraction of the masculine and the femi- 
nine, vulgar and material sex passion. With peo- 
ple who have nature's emotions, instead of those 
imposed upon them by religion, the more sincere 
their sex relationship, the greater will be their 
love and adoration; this is beautiful monogamy, 

82 



but timid young people frightened by "spiritual 
love," religious idealism, or respectability, cannot 
be expected to know that at once. As for those 
spoiled by the religio-economic system, what can 
their claim to monogamy amount to? They can 
only be considered as undeveloped seeds. 

Meanwhile the period of childbirth for the 
woman is limited to the period of life on the 
planet. There are no children born in the super- 
sphere of art, for the warp and woof of planetary 
causality which knits the ego to the Will does not 
operate there. 

Besides, even if the man and woman are per- 
fectly suited to each other in a marriage that 
time will not reverse, it does not mean that they 
will produce the best progeny. According to 
Galton's law of "filial regression," parents who 
are of a very high order will produce children 
less perfect than themselves. But above all, na- 
ture dislikes monotony of the male parent. If 
one of the children in a family is perfect, that is, 
of sincere character, good intellect, and physical 
form, the rest will be less perfect or they will die 
at birth. Hardly a family but nature shows re- 
bellion due to the repetition of the male parent. 

Nature seeks variation, the same as the mind 
seeks variation. By variation it is strengthened, 
by repetition it is weakened. 

This reaction which nature produces in the 
children can be intercepted by variating the male 
parent. This would satisfy the unconscious Will. 
The religio-economic social order, in its blind- 
ness, is opposed to this, but when a man dies, and 
his wife marries again, and has children with the 
second husband, it is the same thing; for the first 
husband lives in the superstate, and knows every- 

83 



thing, and if he is her true mate he waits for her; 
the children are always her children. The whole 
planetary arrangement is intended to be social, 
with individualism and monogamy reserved for 
the superstate (with exceptions, of course). The 
religio-economic order has a contemptible mock 
individualism in which clear reason has no part. 

Consider an apple or a grape : Each one has a 
number of seeds; if planted, it would cover the 
face of earth. It can only be used by selection 
with discretion. So with the seed of sex; it should 
be used according to eugenics, so that the unborn 
will not be the victims of injustice. God does not 
know justice. Justice is first born in the human 
heart. 

The same method that careful breeders of 
horses and cattle employ, that is the true method ; 
only that sincerity of character should be counted 
as by far the foremost quality to be sought for, 
with perfect mind and form added. The profuse 
sex seed should exhaust itself in beauty, romance, 
and passion and not be transmuted to commercial 
or military conquest. 

For childbirth the man must be sincere, with- 
out a physical or mental taint in his ancestry 
which might revert to the child; but now there 
are too many empty people, people whose nature 
is external commotion. Our civilization is prac- 
tically controlled by these people. They have the 
power to come to the front by taking advantage 
of an imperfect state of society. If they take to 
intellectual pursuit, their insincerity still remains. 
Who more shallow than the college professor, the 
political economist that will condone capitalism, 
the grandiloquent religio-moralist that will up- 
hold every decadent institution? 

8 4 



Meanwhile, the factories born of the monstei 
mechanism destroy the face and form, and na- 
ture's primal goodness, sex emotion, is religion- 
ized and commercialized. All this brain fever 
of colleges and theological seminaries, all this 
precaution of the state, and tremendous effort of 
labor that a successful business man might thrive 
here and there, when the whole arrangement is 
foolish ! Riches is foolish and poverty is foolish. 
Beauty is a vision. 

There is no morality ! Every moral code and 
system of ethics ever concocted is worthless. 
There is only a social order which permits eu- 
genics, by which means the birth of a sincere 
human being is insured. Such a one cannot do any 
wrong. The religio-economic arrangement must 
bring about a reaction of trouble, according to 
the law of motives seeking a contrast; the preach- 
ers and law-makers make more work for them- 
selves, the more they insist upon their short- 
sighted viewpoint. When a false social order 
is insisted upon for any length of time, it be- 
comes a determinant in the parental gametes, ac- 
cording as it affects the different sections of the 
community. The false arrangement produces its 
own contrasts and variations. The need for sub- 
terfuge develops into the skill for theft and advan- 
tage-taking. The masters attain to aristocratic 
pride, an undue humility is evolved among the 
poor, and intellect is valuable only as it can be 
sold, i.e., intellect is employed for clever fraud. 
Then good and evil makes its appearance. The 
intellectual classes are clever enough as far as 
their own profession goes, but they are like dead 
when a liberal thought is presented to them. 
Every character that human nature exhibits is 

85 



only a specification of what the unconscious mo- 
tive holds within itself, hate, anger, malice, jeal- 
ousy, lying, cheating, sneering, scoffing, violence, 
and murder. Intellect only specifies in the ego 
that which is indistinct in the unconscious pas- 
sion, but if we proceed on the assumption that 
the motive of the universe cannot be contrary to 
itself, then the above-mentioned qualities of hu- 
man nature must find their place ; nay, they should 
be assets to human nature. The answer is that 
these are the very qualities that under a perfect 
condition turn into wit and humor, while all anger 
and violence exhausts itself in sex passion. The 
very qualities that produce imperfection now 
would, under the proper arrangement, produce 
an interesting human being, while the saint would 
be a vacant abstraction. (See "Human, All Too 
Human.") 

The Will to Beauty that attains to the flower 
of human ecstasy and profound love must reverse 
itself into its opposite, as the roots and branches 
of a plant are opposite to each other, but that 
does not mean a reversion into "evil," rather a 
reversion into its contrast, the same as the light 
and shade of a picture or the contrasted elements 
in a drama. The Will that arrived to a harmony 
in the stellar circle and attains to the climax of 
individualism in the superstate, that same Will 
provides for a rational social arrangement in our 
planetary state. The unconscious motive is flex- 
ible enough, but a reaction of sorrow is the con- 
sequence of a false interpretation. Socialism and 
the eugenic interpretation will make a world where 
there will be no greedy graspers. The seed of 
sincere men must be taken advantage of, for just 
as perfect fruit cannot grow out of the seed taken 

86 



from an imperfect tree, just so cannot the gametes 
of insincere parents produce a perfect child un- 
less there is a chance reversion to an ancestral 
type. 

The woman, of course, must be what she is; 
no child would blame its mother for any imperfect 
heredity due to her, but the male that will com- 
plement her nature can be chosen. Besides, if the 
process of selection is continued, all women would 
be perfect in a few generations. 

If the woman is negative, the male should be 
very profound and positive and variate with each 
child. If the woman is just right, the man should 
correspond to her nature, always sincere, and 
variate with each child, but if the woman is very 
ecstatic and profound, the man should be negative 
to her; for when the motive is too strong, it re- 
verses, or else artificial parthenogenesis; some- 
thing which science is surely coming to. There 
will be plenty of Jesuses then. 

The unconscious motive has a ponderous cau- 
sality, which is different from the swift will of the 
ego on the plane of art; so that in order to obtain 
a good result {in this case the birth of a perfect 
child), the "laws" generated by that ponderous 
causality must be discovered. Man cannot im- 
pose his will in this instance, any more than he 
can will how chemical action should proceed. 
Professor Abbott, of Washington University, 
writing on the subject of artificial parthenogenesis 
and the experiments made in that direction, says : 

Such experiments show that probably all eggs contain 
within themselves all potentialities for normal develop- 
ment and that fertilization, or zygosis, is only an accom- 
paniment to, not a necessity for, individual development. 
Like a wound clock, the egg is a mass of matter of which 

87 



the parts, although in unstable equilibrium, are at rest 
because of a sort of inertia. When an appropriate "stim- 
ulus" comes, whether that of the sperm or that of some 
chemical or physical agent, cell division begins to follow 
cell division in rapid succession. 

It seems, then, that zygosis, or the combination 
of two gametes of diverse origin, serves only to 
bring about a biparental inheritance. 

The unconscious motive waits for man's selec- 
tion. The universe is itself an organism liable to 
organic response and depression; it seeks progress 
when it can through intermittent growth, through 
heredity, but, being unconscious, it is unable to 
proceed, and so it reverses, owing to the law of 
contrasts, until man's conscious selection can sus- 
tain it. 

Evolution proceeds by sudden bounds (muta- 
tions) and by gradual steps (diversities). This 
is an equivalent of the law of sharp contrasts and 
lesser variations which forms the basis of reality 
throughout nature. The mating of decided oppo- 
sites produces a progeny of a more perfect order 
than either of the parents; then inbreeding is 
necessary — inbreeding with continuous variation 
of parent of the very same type, otherwise that 
type goes to decadence. When a climax of sin- 
cerity has been attained, it cannot be improved 
upon; there is no such thing as endless evolution 
of the human ego. We must rather devise a 
means of sustaining it. 

In ancient times sincere individuals existed that 
could not be improved upon by any future evolu- 
tion, the perfect physical form and love of art of 
the Greeks and the profundity of the best indi- 
viduals among the Semitic races. By man's con- 
scious selection their blood might have flowed in 

88 



the veins of all succeeding generations, but the 
religio-economic arrangement brought about a 
premature monogamy. The sex relationship be- 
came sinful without marriage, and the male as- 
sumed power and conceit. 

The strangest thing about a system of power 
is that the sincere people become the victims of 
the dominant element whose nature is external 
action. Nature's motive, which is the Will to 
Beauty, soon establishes itself in the supersphere, 
where it laughs at power. It is idle to talk of 
the Will to Power; we live in the midst of a 
seething caldron of forces, terrestrial and solar 
forces, and the sun itself is held secure by the 
manner in which the sidereal system is constructed. 
(See "The Will in Astronomy.") Man need not 
boast of his power, or an invisible microbe will 
sicken him; it is by a nicety of arrangements that 
we live at all. 

When business success enters a family as a 
determinant, it produces shallowness in the male, 
a mind filled with petty intellectualism ; nothing 
is sacred to such people except that falsehood 
which permits them to thrive. Their touch is 
withering; art, philosophy, love, turn to ashes be- 
fore them. They cannot be taught; of all things 
they take only the external; they cheapen, they 
make fun of the sincere person. Who are they? 
Some speculator, manipulator, salesman, poli- 
tician. 

A woman's romanticist nature may struggle to 
realize itself in a false environment, which is an 
injustice to her, but the adaptable male is inter- 
esting only in a condition of sorrow. The crimi- 
nal is an impulsive child compared with the war 
general and captain of industry whose devasta- 

8 9 



tion spreads far and wide. May they go to mourn 
in infinite space, where their nature is straight- 
ened out ! Their only consolation can be that the 
unconscious motive of the universe has no other 
way of realizing itself in consciousness and human 
emotion but by making one the victim of the 
other. 

The sincere person does not need that mode 
of self-realization; the sincere need only a fitting 
environment that they may express themselves. 
I must say that among the Jews in the Ghetto 
there are the greatest and sincerest souls. The 
sincere man is poor. One can see many, many. 
Here stands a carpenter with a few simple tools 
waiting for some one to give him work, his face 
made beautiful by sorrow; there, a glazier with 
a few panes of glass; a poor woman, a beautiful 
profound soul, waiting to scrub a floor, evidently 
a widow, her husband probably waiting near her 
helpless in the superstate, her father and mother, 
too, invisible and inaudible to the passing crowd. 
There is a socialist waiting for the day of redemp- 
tion; an artist, his work sincere and good; he 
does not get out of his work what he spends for 
color and canvas, for he is earning his bread in 
some other way. Each expresses his sincerity in 
another direction. The poor depatriated man is 
nearer to the figure of Christ than the warring, 
political, capitalist-minded Christian; he is also 
nearest to the superman, only that Christ and the 
poor depatriated man are figures of sorrow. The 
superman has transmuted his emotions of sorrow 
into emotion in beauty, i.e., the adoration of sex, 
the beauty of profound melody, and the adora- 
tion of nature. 

90 



The climax of emotion once attained, nature 
does not go any higher or it would destroy what 
is human. All that is best in art is but a reflec- 
tion, and all intellect is the servant of profound 
sincerity. The intellect that runs away with itself 
is worthless, all ostentatious officialism and all 
elaboration of force but emptiness. Throughout 
nature the highest order of energy hides itself 
under a garb of impotence. It is my belief that 
all genius is usually a regression from parents 
more profound who did not attain to intellectual 
expression. A little intellect makes a great deal 
of noise. All books are worthless. The super- 
man has no books. As soon as we stop teaching 
children, so soon will an uneducated race of sin- 
cere people form itself. The true philosophy of 
life once known, what need will there be even to 
talk about it? It will crystallize itself into cus- 
toms, the same as error has become a custom. 
Books will reduce themselves into pamphlets, 
truths of science or facts valuable in industry. A 
people that see the ensemble of life will not per- 
mit detail to leave its bound and place, or be en- 
grossed all day long in externalism, and in the 
evening repose in feeble pleasure. That is your 
Christian commercial civilization. What is the 
result? Despicable faces of young men, no pro- 
found ideal, no comely beard; just luxury and 
business success as an ideal. The popular drama 
never wearies of setting forth the romance of the 
rich young man who lives in luxurious environ- 
ment, and some slip of a girl that cannot live 
without servants. Sincere people do not fit in 
this atmosphere of externalism, they resist it; 
but foolish young people are overawed by "civili- 

91 



zation," their native sincerity is destroyed, they 
wither, and become as despicable as those whom 
they seek to imitate. 



In olden times man was nearer to nature; there 
was the pathos of human labor without the ma- 
chine, and even among the feudal masters and 
powerful church, the Will to Beauty found ex- 
pression. 

The state and the church has cast aside its the- 
atrical garb, and is avowedly promoting business 
and the morality of business. When man does 
not know when to use mechanism and when not 
to, but valueless and ugly production covers the 
earth, he produces vacancy, nothing upon which 
the human spirit may linger in love and honesty. 
No more a simple peasantry or good workman 
who works at home, but machines and people 
who look like machines. 



Monogamy once attained, care should be taken 
not to return to polygamous variation, or it might 
destroy a perfect relationship. Polygamous va- 
riation is well enough for those who have not 
attained. 

On the plane of art, the woman who has at- 
tained to perfect beauty becomes the clever ac- 
tress; she can imitate many types by change of 
costume, coiffure, and by speech. By the art of 
dissimulation to which the superstate especially 
lends itself, polygamy becomes unnecessary. The 
true meaning of monogamy is a very profound 
love. Sex charm is easily imitated or substituted. 

Monogamy is the concentrated center. 
92 



Religion 

From the prayers of our forefathers a great 
deal of emotion can be drawn. There is more in 
some of these old prayers (of the New Year, the 
Atonement Day, and the Lamentations of the 
Jews, to a Jew, and the emotional services of the 
Catholics, to a Catholic) as regards sincerity of 
emotion than in most of our poetry. They be- 
come dear to us on account of those whom we 
loved (the same in all religions). We should be 
smart, however; i.e., we must pray like hypo- 
crites, for there is no basic truth in them, and 
our forefathers in the superstate no longer be- 
lieve in them. They should be employed to con- 
trast sex emotion. Sex romance is liable to go to 
decadence if continued for too long a time with- 
out contrasting. We should live like sinners who 
repent periodically. It is ignorance of this truth 
that has caused great sorrow in the world. 
* * * * 

To the Student of the Future 

Avoid intellectual detail, it destroys sincerity; 
it is for empty people. A detail should be kept in 
its place, otherwise it is a nuisance. 

Decadence 

There are people who live empty, trivial lives; 
sex is the only outlet for their emotions. The ex- 
pression of poetic pathos and the adoration of 
nature gives strength to a man; it makes him 
worthy to become the comrade of other sincere 
men, and to be respected by the profound woman. 

5JC 3JC «f» 3fC 

93 



The meaning of decadence is that the motive 
seeks to contrast itself. 

^F* *T* *f* *#* 

Regarding Freud — sex may be the central mo- 
tive, but no motive can stay by itself without 
seeking its opposite mode of expression. 



Equality 

The most difficult thing to learn and the most 
important is, that we are all alike in the very near 
future, if not in the immediate present. After 
knowing this, we can criticize each other to our 
heart's content. There will be no venom in it. 
We can also select without denouncing. People 
only begin differently. 

The unconscious Will employs the various en- 
vironments of people as a means of squeezing 
emotion out of them. Its object is emotion. One 
may be very poor and hungry, a cripple, a negro, 
a street-cleaner, but to the unconscious Will the 
sorrow of that humility is a means just as art is 
a means, just as the disappointment that comes 
from wealth, power, and pride is a means. The 
beautiful and emotional actress does not realize 
that the poor woman in a shawl is probably more 
profound than she is. Under a rationally con- 
structed social order human emotion could pro- 
ceed in happiness, but at present the unconscious 
Will can only realize itself by the clash of social 
clans and creeds and by all the accidentals of our 
life. There is nothing great and nothing small 
to the Will that ever pushes forward. Whatever 
brings forth emotion, that serves its purpose. 

In reality, we are all rich and perfect physi- 
94 



cally, with clear minds and profound emotions, 
but we have not yet come to our inheritance. 
Our seed has sprung from chaos. We are as 
helpless as water that flows into the form of a 
vessel, and the Will that moves us cannot readily 
communicate its secret to us. Therefore, we must 
wait until we can arrange ourselves, until sorrow 
will loose its sting and transmute itself to the 
flower of ecstatic music; then we shall become the 
equal masters of time and space. 

If there is any difference among us it is the 
contrast and variation of type, which is a law 
that rules all nature. We become like efflores- 
cences whose beauty is augmented by variation. 

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous 

To permit the contrary motives of deep emo- 
tion and humor to follow each other is the height 
of wisdom. People are frightened by emotion 
into religion. The sincere person must not let 
the unconscious Will lead him by the nose; he 
must employ shrewdness, art, hypocrisy even, he 
must play the emotional actor. (Sincerity of 
emotion once attained, a person cannot go back 
to apathy.) The Will to Beauty is satisfied with 
intervals of emotion only; these moments are the 
flower. Why may not the ego react to laughter, 
sin, and vulgarity? By all means. 



95 



PREFACE TO THE WILL IN CHEMISTRY 

Concentration into a Center and Radiation from 
a Center 

What is the meaning of the three dimensions 
of time and the three dimensions of space? Ac- 
cording to the law of contrasts, two should be 
sufficient. The answer, it seems to me, is this : 
The ego seeks concentration in the center, thus 
leaving the two opposites. 

Of time, the ego takes always the present, and 
in infinite space the ego is the center, as he actu- 
ally is the center in the circle of the horizon. 
Tangible three-dimensioned matter is a thing pos- 
sible only in the immediate vicinity of the ego. 
It partakes of the nature of the ego or the dual 
ego, man and woman, who are the concentrated 
center. Perspective flattens matter into two di- 
mensions, the same as a picture ; the three dimen- 
sions are a delusion in the distance. 

The fact that the ego knows that when he 
reaches that distance matter will become as tangi- 
ble to him as the matter of his present environ- 
ment, means nothing. It only goes to prove that 
the planet is a preparation for the superplane 
of art, where the same phenomenon is repeated, 
with the ego as the central creator. The same 
as a stage with distant sceneries and tangible 
accessories. 



9 6 



Of the five senses, touch is the center. Light 
and sound, the equivalent of seeing and hearing, 
are capable of distance, which touch cannot reach. 
Light, or color, partakes principally of the nature 
of space (with time as a negative factor). Sound 
partakes principally of the nature of time with 
space as a negative factor. Smell and taste are 
a further integration of tangible matter. It is 
something that the ego takes into himself. 

JfS 3|C Jj% >Ji 

Sound, the nature of which is time, vanishes 
with the present; it flows like time; when it ceases, 
it becomes a thing of the past and a possibility 
of the future; but the nature of color is continu- 
ous, for it partakes chiefly of the rigid unchange- 
able nature of space. Nature employs this con- 
trasted process for keeping the eye and the ear 
interested. Light, or color, has its intermittence 
in time on a larger scale; i.e., it employs longer 
periods of time; time is its negative factor; its 
existence depends on materialization and demate- 
rialization in the superstate, upon the change of 
night and day on the planet and upon other pon- 
derous planetary processes which the superego 
raises to the plane of art. The dual ego, man 
and woman, the central reality, have their inter- 
mission of existence in sleeping and waking. The 
mind is only the reflector of the senses; it must 
refer to the senses continually in order to main- 
tain its vigor, otherwise it reverses upon itself 
and goes off into unfounded fantasy; but the 
mind can construct what is not immediately pres- 
ent. In this way it has a greater reach than all 
the senses. 



97 



THE WILL IN CHEMISTRY 

As the quality of matter is not inert substance, 
but rather the message of a motive, it must of 
necessity arrange itself according to the law of 
motives, which is sharp contrasts and concor- 
dances (subtler variations), within an ensemble 
or sphere. Let us see in what way the elements 
known to modern science conform to the law of 
motives. 

The spectroscope has shown us that all matter 
in the incandescent state conforms to the solar 
spectrum. Let us remember this, and we shall 
soon see that all the modifications of matter and 
form are no different than the modifications of 
light. 

The harmonic motive in its effort to express 
itself seeks to coordinate a picture. White and 
black, or light and shadow, form the sharp con- 
trast, with the rest of the colors as the subtler 
variations, or lesser contrasts. We shall be bet- 
ter able to understand the Will to Beauty, if we 
follow the idea of a picture coordinated into 
beauty by the eye of an impressionist painter. 

Alfred R. Wallace, in his book "World of 
Life," says: "The various sensations by which 
we come into contact with the external world — 
sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch — are really 
all specializations of the last, that of material 
contact." There is a profound idea in this, which 

9 8 



will enable us to understand how the Will em- 
ploys matter to coordinate a harmony. Let us 
wait and examine another characteristic law of 
motives which is : the central motive of sincerity in 
a correlated environment, as the center within a 
circle, the seed in the center of a flower, the ego 
in the center of his coordinated environment — 
the circle of the horizon, the process of radiation 
from a center throughout nature. 

Let us remember now that all external nature 
is the object for the central ego, the subject, that 
the five senses of the ego are drawn from corre- 
spondences in external nature. It is wonderful 
how the senses arrange themselves in dual con- 
trast around the sense of touch of which they are 
the modification; sight and hearing bring to the 
ego knowledge of distance; taste and smell bring 
verification of nearness, they are of a contrasted 
nature to sight and hearing. The sense of touch 
is the center. (See Preface.) Nature seems to 
have intended that man and woman, the con- 
trasted dual ego, should live in a paradise of love 
and poetry, in a beautiful landscape with tall 
decorative trees, intoned in harmonic light and 
color, with the songs of birds, the murmur of 
trees and water, and other beautiful sights and 
sounds of nature, augmented by his own sense of 
music, with flowers, fruits, and all delicious food 
to gratify his sense of smell and taste. 

The harmony once attained by the unconscious 
Will, by means of planetary causality 6 reproduces 
itself in the superstate, as the volition of the con- 
scious man and woman. The sense of touch finds 



a The inner meaning of causality is contrast; the uncon- 
scious motive interprets astronomical and chemical causality, 
the same as an artist employs contrasts. 

99 



its correspondence in the formation of material 
contact, and the distance is beautiful light shining 
on form coordinated by the sense of sight instead 
of the light of the sun. Of course, the other senses 
find their correspondence in the external ensemble, 
for the principle is ever the same; i.e., the central 
motive coordinating its corollary through con- 
trasted action. The whole planetary arrange- 
ment must therefore be an arrangement between 
subject and object, for that is the most important 
contrast. The only difference between the planet 
and the superstate is, that the planet presents a 
social arrangement, while the superstate is indi- 
vidualistic; otherwise it is all magnetic; i.e., it 
can be reduced to force. 

All matter is a phenomenon of energy, in the 
contrast, time and space, only that the unconscious 
Will proceeds through the ponderous planetary 
causality, while the conscious Will to Beauty, the 
ego, in the superstate, takes the essence, is able 
to select, without the unpleasant contrast which 
is inevitable in the planetary state. It is from 
this larger conception of the nature of matter, 
i.e., its inherent will to coordinate itself into a 
harmony (by the process of dual contrast) for the 
purpose of serving the subject, the conscious ego, 
that we can form a correct idea of the force that 
dwells in the elements. The specialist to whom 
chemistry is a trade is lost in an abyss of mystery, 
for he has no metaphysical basis. We can only 
consider here the broad view of the Will in 
Chemistry — that suffices our purpose — and leave 
it to the chemist to verify the law of motives in 
greater detail. 

The English physicist Sir J. J. Thomson 
showed that an isolated electrical charge moving 

ioo 



with high velocity could have both mass and 
inertia, i.e., could have those very properties that 
we are accustomed to ascribe to matter. The 
atom is made up of a large number of negative 
charges of electricity, or electrons, as they are 
termed, moving with high velocities in a field of 
positive electrification; this corresponds to the 
metaphysical view that all matter is reducible 
to force or Will in contrasted action. 

The ancients, in reducing all matter to their 
primal appearances of earth, air, water, fire, per- 
ceived the law of contrast. Let us here, for con- 
venience' sake, consider matter from this ancient 
viewpoint instead of the modern analytical 
method, which reduces matter to eighty-odd ele- 
ments. There is a suspicion among chemists that 
the elements are not as stable as they were at 
first supposed to be, being that they are all a mode 
of energy. We know that the emanation of ra- 
dium produces among other things the element 
helium, and lead, which may be regarded as the 
ashes of radium. It is claimed that when X-rays 
are sent through hydrogen gas helium and neon 
are produced; be that as it may, the stability of 
the element is unimportant to us. They serve the 
chemist only as figures serve the mathematician. 
* * * * 

Fire 

The primal energy unfolds itself into two 
opposites — heat and light. 

Observe contrasted action in the following: — 

A chemical reaction implies a transmutation of 

energy and the reason two substances react is that 

they are charged to different electrical potentials 

IOI 



and are induced to react by an electric current, 
by heat or by light. Electricity itself is force that 
can be reduced to heat and to light through its 
negative and positive poles. Heat and light are 
the dual expression of primal energy, fire, accord- 
ing to the ancient conception. Heat corresponds 
to the inner quality of matter, while light gives 
things their external appearance of light and 
shade and color. 

Heat and light are easily transmuted one into 
the other. An instance is that of chlorophyl, the 
substance which gives leaves their green color. 
Chlorophyl separates the carbon from carbon 
dioxide with the aid of sunlight; in the laboratory 
the same process requires intense heat. The tre- 
mendous power attributed to the ultra-red ray of 
being able to destroy fortifications may be very 
true. So throughout nature, form and color are 
interchangeable. Like all inseparable contrasts, 
they can be traced to one motive. The central 
motive dilates itself until it reaches the circle of 
the horizon. Tangible form is merely the con- 
centrated center in the sphere of the conscious 
ego. Form and color become light in the dis- 
tance. 

Likewise, all matter partakes of the nature of 
fire combustion and extinction, growth and decay 
— in the superstate, materialization and demate- 
rialization. 



Water 

Water, which is the opposite of fire, is com- 
posed of oxygen and hydrogen; hydrogen the most 
combustible gas and oxygen without which com- 

102 



bustion cannot take place, i.e., the contrast of fire 
is composed of fire. 



Air 

Air is composed of oxygen which induces com- 
bustion and nitrogen which extinguishes, i.e., an- 
other contrast. 

Earth is the contrast of air. When solids 
transmute themselves into sound, they identify 
themselves with air; without vibrating air, sound 
is inaudible. The solid in the distance becomes 
color or sound. In the superstate the central ego 
can produce the sounds of nature by the con- 
trasted action of energy, without having the 
causality of the planet, such as the sounds of 
trees, the songs of birds and musical instruments, 
the same as telharmonic music (electric music) 
reproduces the timbre of violins and other instru- 
ments. (I heard the sound that the wind makes 
among the trees imitated by a person in the super- 
state, with an interpreting melody interwoven.) 
We must admit that art makes reality more real, 
that the whole planet is only so much material for 
the emotions, its tangible encumbrance is worth- 
less. The solids can also be reduced to lesser 
contrasts, e.g., the contrasts among the metals. 
Time and space is the grand contrast of all matter. 

As the Will is never prosaic repetition, but 
rather its contrasts are vivified by the Will to 
Beauty, a tremendous force, immense and yet 
subtle, the matter of its robe, which is the visible 
universe, assumes variation of quality and form. 
It should therefore not always be interpreted 
from the point of view of causality or dual con- 

103 



trast, as if we were forever busy examining its 
texture, its warp and woof. Its causality is sec- 
ondary, it is only its mode of attainment; in its 
ensemble it is the harmonic motive. It is this 
relationship to the harmonic motive which gives 
matter its mysterious qualities, its beauty. Some- 
times matter makes itself evident as the Will to 
Power, as in the case of explosives and poisons, 
or in the generation of pure energy; or else the 
motive may be utility. The Will to Beauty em- 
ploys nether motives upon which it rises; these 
form its necessary base. 

The Will to Beauty cannot arrange itself com- 
pletely on the planet without leaving a loophole 
for death; it cannot rest here, but it is to be 
noticed that wherever man is impotent, the un- 
conscious Will produces the harmonic relation- 
ship. The planetary condition strives to arrange 
itself as much as possible to be of service to man, 
the conscious subject. It seeks to meet the ego 
halfway. It must do so, because the ego is its 
means of attainment. An example of this con- 
cordance in unconscious nature is evident in the 
nature of water. When water freezes into ice, 
its density is only .091, which enables it to float; 
all other substances become denser when freezing. 
Were ice to become denser, it would clog up all 
rivers and oceans, as the water on the surface 
would continue to freeze and sink. It is this con- 
cordant quality of the unconscious harmonic mo- 
tive that deludes so many otherwise scientific 
people into the belief of a conscious creator, such 
as Wallace, Edison, and others. It is really a 
pity to see such widespread ignorance of Schopen- 
hauer's philosophy; incomplete though he was, he 
still explains the above difficulty most thoroughly 

104 



in the "Will in Nature" and in "The World as 
Will and Idea." 

If we turn now to organic chemistry, we find 
a marvelous correspondence of contrasts. In the 
organism, the Will makes an effort to evolve the 
conscious subject. Protoplasm is a substance 
essentially composed of hydrogen, oxygen, nitro- 
gen, and carbon. The first two are the vivifiers, 
the last two are the elements acted upon. They 
correspond perfectly to fire, air, water, earth: 
hydrogen to fire, oxygen to air, nitrogen to water, 
and the nonmetallic solid carbon to earth, as we 
shall see. Nitrogen is the extinguisher; it also 
resembles water in that it flows, it changes, con- 
tinually, it gives protoplasm its flow, its mobility, 
its proneness to change its state of combination 
and energy. Nitrogen, though itself inactive, 
readily enters into combinations when energy is 
supplied to it; this it receives through the hy- 
drogen and oxygen. The nitrogen and hydrogen 
combine through electric discharges in the atmos- 
phere and it is in this way, as also by means of 
oxides of nitrogen, that plants get their nitrogen 
and through the plants, the animals. Oxygen 
gives protoplasm its vitality, hydrogen its fire, 
while the solid carbon seems to be the basis. 

Protoplasm has the power of modifying its 
structure by absorbing and molding other ele- 
ments to serve special purposes in the various 
parts of an organism; these, of course, serve the 
purpose of lesser contrasts, but the first four ele- 
ments serve as a starting-point for further modi- 
fications. When the contrast is not evident or is 
uninteresting, a new motive appears. The motive 
is not analyzed by the mind, it is for the senses 
and emotions. 

105 



All elements taken together, whether as ele- 
ments (the periodic table) or as compounds, must 
fall under the law of motives, i.e. y sharp and 
lesser contrasts within an ensemble or sphere, 
whether the sphere of observation is large or 
small. 7 It is always a correspondence of the an- 
cient division of matter, even though it may not 
resemble earth, air, water, fire. Whenever two 
contrasts only are in evidence, time and space 
forms its greater contrast; but too many lesser 
contrasts cannot become evident without a lesser 
motive intervening. This is the complex of real- 
ity; only that in the planetary arrangement a con- 
trast of imperfection enters, a nuisance, such as 
the weed among vegetation, but this very same 
complex of reality can arrange itself until it 
attains perfection. 

Let us not forget that the relation between 
subject and object is the most important contrast. 
We now have the metaphysical base which can 
be elaborated by the scientist. 

* * * * 

The breaking up of the atom in radium reveals 
to us what tremendous energy the Will to Beauty 
transmutes. 

* * * * 

It must be remembered that the intrinsic 
energy that every element holds can be utilized 
by the Will to serve a subtler purpose : its latent 
potency can be sublimated, translated, trans- 
muted into a higher ratio, before and after enter- 
ing into combination. For the Will is not con- 
tented with the exhibition of pure force; it is a 

7 For further detail of this, see "The New Knowledge" by 
R. K. Duncan, and "Researches on the Affinities of the Ele- 
ments" by Geoffrey Martin. 

106 



motive that seeks to transmute power into beauty. 
The highest order of energy hides itself under a 
garb of impotence. The transmutation of the 
intrinsic energy of elements into a higher ratio 
is evident alike in the protoplasm that goes to 
form the subject and in the sphere of the object, 
the environment, for the subject and object are 
contrasts of each other. It is simply that the 
harmonic motive everywhere arranges itself into 
a corolla with a concentrated center, like a flower. 
Each element is a motive, itself the center of a 
sphere of energy, guided by the law of motives. 
The new quality it assumes is no more strange 
than the new quality that mixed colors have — 
their relationship in the ensemble of a landscape, 
or any part of the landscape. The value of a 
note of music is noticed only when it has found 
its place in a melody of beauty : it becomes strange 
and wonderful then, something that you cannot do 
without; in the octave it is so commonplace. The 
elements never lose their hidden motive; they 
await interpretation, i.e., they flow, they trans- 
mute themselves according to the requirements 
of the Will. This explains the coordination of 
force in the superstate. 

Why does the black carbon become a diamond? 
Why is the sapphire only oxide of aluminium? 
When the element or combination of elements 
express themselves as power only, they express 
the most elementary aspect of their nature; when 
acted upon by primal energy (solar heat and 
light or electricity, which is a transmutation of 
heat and light) they clash, that they may finally 
harmonize; for the primal Will is terrific and 
savage. An instance of how an innocent-looking 
substance manifests its primal force is evident in 

107 



water. Water retains the terrific energy of its 
hydrogen and oxygen. When heated into steam 
or frozen into ice, it can break iron vessels and 
gigantic rocks. 

When highly heated and compressed, water 
becomes one of the most corrosive substances; 
such water will dissolve metals like iron and zinc 
with effervescence, just as a strong acid will, 
evolving hydrogen gas; while the strongest min- 
eral acids such as sulphuric, hydrochloric and 
nitric acids become quite neutral substances at 
the low temperature of 105 ° F. It all depends 
how the element is arranged; for example, iron 
is strong but oxygen can reduce it to rust. 8 

The mighty energies locked up in nitrogen 
manifest themselves in the terrible power of ex- 
plosives. Nitrogen combines with oxygen at high 
temperature and under the influence of electricity 
so furiously that it produces a flame hot enough 
to boil platinum. Under ordinary temperature 
it is seemingly inert and dead. The lightning is 
burning nitrogen. We can see from chemistry 
that a coordinated harmony is composed of in- 
tense energy, only differently arranged; in other 
words, the Will to Beauty is a more subtle, more 
profound, mode of energy than the Will to Power. 

The harmonic action of the elements depends, 
of course, on the earth's distance from the sun, 
the related mass of sun and planet; but that only 
shows how profound the harmonic Will is. The 
conscious creator, the artist, finds the same won- 

8 When the iron becomes color (burnt umber, burnt sienna, 
ochre, raw sienna, light red) its potency is transmuted. When 
the color takes its place in a harmony of beauty, it may 
become more potent. It is strange, too, that as color the iron 
is very permanent but the element must be continually pro- 
tected. 

IO8 



der in his own work, after completing an impres- 
sion of beauty. The mind marvels at the won- 
derful way in which the various parts are linked. 
We need here not consider the interpretation 
of utility in chemistry — that has already been done 
and overdone by modern science. Utility is the 
nether structure in the relations of subject and 
object. If we further consider the elements as 
air, earth, water, fire, their esthetic synthesis, in- 
stead of their analytical aspect, at the beautiful 
hour of dusk, sunset, deepening night, and the 
romantic light of the moon, they conspire to form 
nature's most wonderful harmony. 



Every motive in nature, be it a chemical ele- 
ment or a human ego, is capable of radiating 
from its center of sincerity and of transforming 
itself into dominating power; it may transmute 
its energy into a force of destruction; more com- 
monly it will seek its place as a link in the chain 
of utility, but as a climax in the sphere of its 
activity, the motive will seek its flower, namely, 
beauty. 

The elements will seek beauty, in the ensemble 
of a landscape, into harmonious sound among the 
trees, and the marvel of color harmony among the 
vegetation, cloud, sky, and reflecting water — and 
the human ego seeks emotion. Notice the same 
in astronomy. The highest manifestation of 
power, terrific in clash and destruction, but all of 
it shaping itself that it may serve our sun and 
planet. 

On a clear night when undisturbed by the lights 
of city, as in midocean, the stars appear in their 
grandeur and beauty, as a chandelier of lights 

109 



suspended in the sky. Then there is moonlight, 
sunrise, and sunset. Color harmony, which de- 
pends upon the light of the sun, is a peace-bring- 
ing factor that is continuously active. Notice the 
beauty of the ground that is not destroyed by 
mechanism, the yellowish gray path strewn with 
the various accessories that are very precious in- 
deed, twigs, pebbles and a few golden brown 
leaves — here is peace. 

Man's power is a jest. The best manifestation 
of man's power is the interpretation of realism 
into art. Then ponderous nature yields to his 
volition, unless by being immortal he can claim 
to express more power in time than the whole 
stellar system holds in space. The rest is luck. 
Man is lucky that there is an unconscious Will 
to Beauty seeking specialization in an ego. 



The Transmutation of Power into Beauty 

Light, which throughout nature expresses itself 
as color, intones all things into a sphere of clear 
foreground and hazy distance, leaving the ego in 
the center. The Will seeks color through chemi- 
cal action in our ponderous planetary state; it 
transmutes light into pigment, waiting for man's 
selection to complete her motive, to continue the 
remarkable color harmonies found in nature and 
at intervals to augment them. 

All art is nature flowing into beauty. It is 
not necessary to dissect color, to trace it to its 
original power. Color harmony is strong enough, 
is the most powerful in its effect upon the emo- 
tions; the very color of the ground undisturbed 
by mechanism is enough to bring one happiness. 

no 



A mechanist civilization that destroys the acci- 
dentals of nature for the sake of its construction 
deludes itself. The tar-paved streets prevent na- 
ture from healing the human heart. To Ruskin 
it was a religion, because he knew its value. It 
is a theme sufficient for a religion. One form 
of mechanism leads to another: the automobiles 
— the ground is divided into squares by the real- 
estate owner. Our large cities, our large edifices 
have upon them the curse of utility and the 
hypocrisy of ornament. Then the clothing of 
men has upon it the stamp of commerce ; they are 
not shabby enough, not free enough; they require 
continuous attention, continuous polishing. Is it 
a wonder that the people are obnoxious to look 
at? Fools stand agape at the marvels of 
mechanism. 

How ennobling is the stateliness of white-col- 
umned architecture in a landscape ! How good 
it is to meet sincere men and women walking 
quietly in the midst of a nature made more beau- 
tiful by their presence — socialists, poets, lovers, 
creators, the clear in intellect, and the true- 
hearted! 

Sound, like color, is the misty chaos of power 
which is brought to the most melodious luxury 
by the pathos and lyric ecstasy of the Will to 
Beauty. Sound bears that relation to time which 
color bears to space ; that is why they are of con- 
trasted nature. 

Color has a continuous stable effect, while 
sound is flowing and intermittent. The same 
power that produces harmonic color contrasts 
itself in the production of harmonic sound. The 
sound that the wind makes among the trees is 
not accidental, a long chain of planetary cau- 

iii 



sality evolved it. It bows the heart with its reso- 
nance. An inventor by the name of Chaill de- 
vised a means of transmitting music to a great 
distance (telharmonic music) by means of a small 
invisible instrument among the trees. It could 
augment nature's sound into a fitting melody. 

The water's edge is the point of highest in- 
terest. It reflects the landscape like a mirror 
causing meditation; with the reed that grows by 
the river's edge the primitive man made music. 
The mind, too, is like a mirror. When the senses 
feed upon beauty, the mind reflects and by the 
process of imagination it gives birth to that flower 
of beauty, deep emotion. In building an artistic 
city, the canal is left to man's selection. When 
the ground will no longer be bound by the real- 
estate owner, architecture will flourish, its lines 
of construction will variate with the dignity of 
the ancient Greek and the freedom of the modern, 
and will serve communal necessity. 

The nether structure of iron should not be used 
for raising a fifty-story monstrosity, but rather for 
the purpose of securing greater safety. In case 
of earthquake, iron structure has proved its value. 
The form of natural construction without iron 
should be observed and maintained. The impor- 
tant thing is to safeguard human life, especially 
the woman, who should have a child before dying. 

Architecture can be greater than the Greek be- 
cause of the invisible improvements that can enter 
into its construction ; romantic gardens for prome- 
nading lovers can fill the intervening spaces, where 
the virtues of loving-kindness and compassion 
may be practiced; with telharmonic music hidden 
among the foliage continuous melody can be made 
to issue forth. Woman's beauty will begin to 

112 



reign; wit and coquetry will supersede the need 
for political betterment among a race of religious 
cripples. 

Pottery tiles are the most beautiful thing for 
external architectural decoration and stained glass 
for internal color. The blue-red-and-yellow tile 
ornament looks beautiful between the foliage of 
trees. 

In the autumn the landscape runs from dark 
green and russet to orange and yellow; nature 
seeks an exaggeration into black and gold. The 
metal gold is malleable and can be hammered into 
golden laurels into bright notes among the tiles 
that will resist oxidation, it can be woven into 
black draperies that will fall with telling contrast 
across the porticos and balconies of the cream- 
colored buildings. 

The elements pass on their will to a rising har- 
mony in the myriad murmuring sounds at sunset. 
The frog and the cricket's sound, the songs of 
birds, in tall decorative trees, the swan's death 
song — "chant only one hymn and expire." 

The beautiful "willows by the water courses," 
the strutting peacock on the meadow of sharp 
green with its burden of blue and copper color, 
or the white peacocks with a center of delicate 
lemon color, which by man's selection can be had 
in abundance, the marvelous color harmony of 
the plumage of pheasants. 

/Jut first the economic system must be perfected, 
human drudgery must be relieved; after that, the 
law of contrasts must be understood, so as to 
prevent any one condition from going to deca- 
dence by being sustained too long and so reversing 

itself into sorrow. 

* * * * 

113 



The improvement of the superstate over the 
planetary condition is this : The external environ- 
ment in the superstate depends for its existence 
upon the will of the ego. The external environ- 
ment can never hurt the ego; every object would 
dematerialize before his will; nothing can fall on 
him for there is no gravitation; no fire could exist 
against his will; the ego is the center. In our 
planetary condition the ego is subservient to the 
planet. It requires great arrangement on the 
planet to insure the ego against sorrow, until in- 
evitable old age comes. Then, in order to further 
outwit the unconscious Will, the ego should seek 
painless death. The forms of reality in the 
superstate are the same as the forms of reality on 
the planet. The realism of the planet seeks per- 
fection by flowing into the superplane of art. The 
artist can do nothing else but employ the realism 
of nature. 

Miscellaneous 

All art is nature's realism flowing into beauty, 
but now nature flows into mechanism. 
* * * * 

The interest that primitivism in art has for us 
is that the unskilled crudeness of the human hand, 
the pathos of human labor, is dearer to us than 
the correctness of the machine. The correctness 
of the machine kills and destroys; we are like 
dead in its presence. 

*I* 5JC 5fC 2J» 

Nature has taken force, and has transmuted it 
into what is called human weakness. 



114 



When human ignorance attains to erudition it 
is complete. 

* * * * 

Vulgarity — people are polite because they need 
favors from one another; vulgar people tell the 
truth. When it comes to emotion, it is the un- 
educated people who feel sincerely. 

* * * * 

I believe that vision in ensemble of the human 
figure or landscape is the prerequisite for phil- 
osophic vision. Our colleges turn out distorted, 
one might say insane, people, with whom one 
cannot reason — minds overburdened with detail. 

* * * * 

Study with a clear mind is possible only at in- 
tervals, the same as clear vision in art. Our life 
on the planet is not arranged in proper contrasts. 
It is for this reason that the mind reverses after 
it has been occupied in clear reason. The reverse 
energy does not permit. 

* * # * 

When a woman has no children of her own, 
she and her husband can arrange a relationship 
with the children of relatives or friends in the 
superstate. The superstate is finally an arrange- 
ment between adults of the same age though of 
different generations. The superman is one. 



115 



SCHOPENHAUER'S " WORLD AS WILL 
AND IDEA" 

It must be said to the credit of Schopenhauer 
that he understood that time and space are con- 
trasts, and that cause and effect partake of the 
contrasted nature of time and space; but as he 
was misled by the Kantian idealism, he did not 
know enough to make "sharp and lesser con- 
trasts" the principle upon which the Will con- 
structs itself. His book should have been "The 
World as Will and Its Contrasts." 

He also labored a great deal in trying to ex- 
plain how the relation between the Will and its 
manifestations is not causal.* The thing is much 
simpler : Cause and effect in nature, and the mind 
(the principle of sufficient reason) correspond to 
contrasted action. The Will corresponds to the 
senses and emotions in the ego. All contrasted 
action in nature flows into the motive where it 
stops. All the mind's reason flows into the senses 
and stops there. Then you feel. 

In mechanics, the wheel and the double-acting 
lever that goes to the wheel and from the wheel 
is a good example of how contrasted action goes 
to the motive and from the motive, and is lost 
there. The wheel is a symbol of the motive. 

*r *r t * 

*Note. — Schopenhauer made the greatest discovery in phi- 
losophy when he conceived that causality does not apply to 
the Will. 

116 



This is a thing of the utmost importance to un- 
derstand. You cannot ask for a cause for the 
motive. The mind that asks for a cause is im- 
pelled by the need for contrasts, but in the motive 
contrasts disappear. 

Schopenhauer made a great effort to explain 
this point in his own incomplete way, but after 
all it is very simple. The process of going from 
reason to consequence in the mind, and from 
cause to effect in external nature, is impelled by 
contrasted action, but the motive (the Will) is 
a self-sufficient ensemble. Emotion and reason 
are opposed modes of knowing. If philosophers 
had understood that, they would not have labored 
so much seeking for God, the absolute, the in- 
finite, and the unknowable. 

Bergson and William James 

After the sincere minds have spoken, come the 
mediocrities. When a person is sincere he always 
expresses that. He may be a shoemaker singing 
sadly at his work, but mediocrity cannot be trans- 
muted by becoming a philosopher into anything 
better, but into another form of mediocrity. Of 
such nature are the philosophies of Bergson and 
of James. In our present social condition of 
civilized externalism, the shallow and stupid is in 
demand, if it can only take on a tone of erudition. 

Schopenhauer and Nietzsche were very pow- 
erful thinkers. Their minds penetrated nature 
through and through. Lacking the evidence of 
an after-life, their interpretations of the uncon- 
scious Will, as pessimism, and as power, its oppo- 
site, were the only possible interpretations. They 
are like chess-players, defeated because they had 

117 



no other move; but these college professors who 
have to teach something, write about something, 
what are their thoughts but worthless? 

Pragmatism means that Professor James gives 
you the permission to believe in any ideal. A 
person having emotion does not wait for a prag- 
matist to sanction it. Belief in an ideal depends 
on its rational construction. Furthermore, it dif- 
fers from another opposite construction, it op- 
poses it. Contrasts cannot be avoided. There is 
only one alternative; suppress expression and be 
mediocre. Then it does not matter what ideas 
you have. 

A religious person prays to God in the hour 
of need, "Out of the depths I cry unto you, O 
Lord," because reason tells him that there his help 
lies, but an atheist-socialist with equal sincerity 
would consider that irrational. A better economic 
order would be more efficient than prayer to the 
socialist. How can pragmatism reconcile the 
clash of these opposites? About as much as it can 
reconcile the opposition of the exploiting rich and 
their victims. 

He who understands the philosophy of Beyond 
Good and Evil can afford to be a hypocrite, he 
can feel the emotion of prayer and be an atheist 
at the same time. From this point of view, prag- 
matism may be looked upon as a burlesque on the 
law of contrasts. 

Pragmatism is undoubtedly an adaptation of 
Nietzsche's "process of falsification" and a reac- 
tion of his intense philosophy of power. 

Bergson got the idea that nether nature is 
guided by law, but free will reigns in the "spirit." 
The truth of the matter is that "law" and "cause 
and effect" can always be reduced to contrasts and 

118 



variations; wherever there is reality it is the 
same; this is different from free will. He, too, 
tried to adopt Nietzsche's "process of falsifica- 



tion." 



"Free will" is a means of satisfying the search 
of the theologian for a philosophical basis. It is 
Nietzsche combined with Kantian transcenden- 
talism that gave Bergson the false start. You 
cannot cover weak reasoning by being "artistic." 
Art is not nebulous. The artist is impelled by a 
motive which is opposed to a motive of an oppo- 
site nature. Furthermore, the lines of construc- 
tion become contrasted and related until that par- 
ticular motive is expressed — he has no free will 
at all. The method of the artist is precisely the 
method of nature. 

To say that there is free will is to say that a 
motive is capable of constructing itself without 
contrasts. Nature permits interpretation to the 
conscious ego, but that is a false liberty, for every 
motive is composed not only of itself but of its 
contrasts and subtler variations. If the interpre- 
tations are unsound, a contrast of discord and 
suffering is sure to follow. Where, then, is free 
will? The ego is a motive that seeks arrange- 
ment, the same as a chemical element. 

Schopenhauer and Nietzsche have expressed 
the tragedy of the unconscious Will. Bergson is 
a mediocrity; he is not an artist, he has only 
emasculated and distorted them into the stale 
spirit-and-matter interpretation which the relig- 
ious frauds have always employed as a base for 
their profession. This he accomplishes by the 
hocus-pocus of sublimating time, space, and mat- 
ter. Time and space are contrasts. That which 
is contrast must remain contrast. Bergson made 

119 



a daub of it; he confused the lights and shadows 
and destroyed nature's motive like a weak painter. 
He sublimates the concentrated center into 
"spirit." 

What do you gain by giving the individual free 
will? Who has free will? Is it the person who 
finds it difficult to live, or is moved by hidden 
emotions? Only smug respectability has free 
will. It is nothing but shallowness covered by 
talk, "V art de bien dire," which the French like. 
William James does the same thing; he has an 
obnoxious conversational style, college erudition, 
much ado about nothing. He takes pains to ex- 
plain a petty thought that a sincere person would 
discard from his mind. We are helpless against 
the human emotions as against the coming of a 
tornado or volcanic eruptions. It is childish to 
speak about it. 

It is the teaching of people who are well situ- 
ated, souls untouched by pain. They do not know 
what it is not to be able to live. We are helpless 
unless by wisdom man finds the way that the un- 
conscious Will strives for, then we are parallel. 
Bergson discovered nothing new; his refutation 
of the mechanist view of life is not his own. 
Nietzsche had already tried that. "Truth is that 
kind of error which enables a species to augment 
itself." (See "The Mistakes of Nietzsche.") 
There was nothing for the two professors to do 
but to follow the bent of their mediocre natures, 
to popularize and to cheapen, to supply the de- 
mands of audiences made mediocre by colleges, 
respectable religion, and business. Bergson be- 
gan to spin fine thoughts and James discovered 
"pragmatism," "what is truth." After Schopen- 
hauer has shown that the Will of the universe is 

1 20 



unconscious, it becomes possible once more to 
have a conscious God, a Jesus, anything else, for 
that matter, as long as you are respectable. 

Furthermore, what is the meaning of "spirit"? 
There is emotion, there is beauty, but there is no 
such thing as spirit. 

Herbert Spencer 

The explanation by mechanism is not bad if 
we bear in mind that the inner meaning of 
mechanism is contrasted action and that there is 
a motive, an intention, behind the contrasted ac- 
tion, which employs it as a means of realizing 
itself. 

[This article needs further amplification.] 

Relativity— Einstein 

Relativity leads one nowhere ; it might lead one 
to insanity; it has no sides, no top or bottom. 
Contrast and variations within a sphere — that 
puts a sharp edge to the universe. Mathematical 
elaboration avails nothing when the point of view 
is weak. 

I believe that Nietzsche became insane because 
the "process of falsification" led him nowhere, 
but to "eternal recurrence," "the most oppressive 
thought." He then began to speak of "spherical 
space." 

Relativity properly applies to the greater and 
the lesser only. Furthermore, relativity is the 
weakest of all weak ideas if it has no interpreting 
motive to give it content. You take a real world 
and reduce it to the cloudy chaos of mathematics. 

That the universe is not a static reality, but in 
121 



a state of continuous becoming, that has been 
discussed over and over again by Nietzsche. 
(See "Will to Power in Science," in "The Will 
to Power," Vol. II.) The world is an "appear- 
ance of an appearance." Truth is that "process 
of falsification" which brings you something defi- 
nite; the universe is a flux; the question is, How 
do you condition the flux? It is like living in the 
fogs of London where, as Wilde says, "the cul- 
tured get an artistic effect, but the uncultured only 
catch cold." The universe is a nebula waiting 
for an interpreter ; a false interpretation is better 
than none, for it enables you to live, but a mathe- 
matical doctrine of relativity is without any in- 
terpretation. 

When the artist looks at a landscape or a 
figure he finds it flexible ; he stamps his mood upon 
them; the contrasted masses reshape themselves 
and change their tone according as his point of 
view is prosaic or poetic. I have no doubt that 
this same flexibility that exists in the sphere of 
art exists in every part of matter. That is as it 
should be. Art is the metaphysical abstract of 
the material universe. The universe strives until 
it realizes itself in human emotion. That is why 
I interpret the universe as the Will to Beauty. 
A scientist should forget all about that and apply 
himself to the discovery of those facts that will 
serve as an amplifying detail to life, that will 
serve utility if you wish. When a scientist talks 
of relativity, it means he cannot discover anything; 
he should leave that kind of speculation to phi- 
losophers. The detail must be in its place; it 
must not run away with itself. One wonders 
when reading the books of those speculative 
scientists what learning is for, such hair-splitting 

122 



detail, such motiveless ideas. My theory is that 
stegnosis is the meaning of that kind of learning 
— too much time spent sitting in professorial 
chairs. From this point of view, their books may 
be regarded as a concomitant (to use the lan- 
guage of Spencer) to the aforementioned condi- 
tion. 

There are authors of the Einstein class (too 
numerous to mention) who will cover a whole 
volume on the nature of time and space and not 
know in the end what constitutes reality. They 
usually finish their mathematics with quoting a 
sentimental poem on how difficult it is to know 
the mystery of life, or with a yawn about "being" 
outside of time and space. A person should be 
happy if he has not been spoiled by detail. One 
should run away from it as from a contagious 
fever. When this brain fever of science is over, 
humanity will be able to go back to a kind of 
beautiful primitivism. 

A detail of science in its relation to life is like 
a detail in a painting. It is good in its place, 
otherwise it is a nuisance. 

The one good thing that can be said in favor of 
the idea of relativity is, that it is a departure 
from the Kantian transcendentalism which also 
confused Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and is a 
step in the direction of contrasts, but a scientist 
that proceeds by analysis cannot go far, for na- 
ture does not proceed from detail to ensemble 
any more than an artist proceeds that way. 
Science can only supply the detail after the grand 
conception is known. Relativity applies only to 
the greater and the lesser; it applies to parts only, 
degrees of an identical quality. To reduce con- 

123 



trasts and variations to relativity is to reduce 
the ensemble to its parts. 

Then, again, contrasted action is not always in 
evidence. Contrasted action alternates with the 

inspiring motive. 

* * * * 

Unconscious nature begins with matter in the 
contrast of time and space and completes itself 
in the contrast, man and woman. Matter, the 
finite, gives contrasted meaning to time and space, 
the infinite. That is different than "relativity" 
and "spherical space." 

Relativity is a weak interpretation. The in- 
terpretation by contrast brings entirely different 
results. Contrasts should remain contrasts. 

The weakness of relativity becomes evident 
when the relativitists find it necessary to reduce 
time to a fourth dimension of space (they have 
no use for time), instead of letting the three di- 
mensions of time contrast with the three dimen- 
sions of space. It becomes especially evident 
when space is reduced to a sphere, which is a 
quality of matter, instead of letting matter, the 
finite, contrast with time and space, the infinite. 

Relativity is a daub of the universe, not a pic- 
ture — the lights and shadows and the half-tones 
all in a mash. 

There is no doubt, however, that all contrasts 
can be traced to the same motive from which they 
have their origin. This kind of relativity (if one 
wishes to use a misleading term) is equivalent to 

contrasts. 

* * * * 

Einstein's motiveless relativity, which reduces 
time and space to finites, is the opposite extreme 
of error of the Kantian idealism, which gave 

124 



time and space an infinite past. I notice that the 
relativitists (Reuterdahl) are returning to an Ab- 
solute, a God, u upon whom the relative reality 
of the cosmos depends." This is the most logical 
conclusion for a speculative scientist. 

Between the parts of space by itself there is 
relativity, between the parts of time by itself 
there is relativity; but between space and time 
there is no relativity, there is contrast, unless you 
rob time and space of their reality by reducing 
them to empty mathematics. 

In empty mathematics relativity reigns su- 
preme; but reality changes the relativity of 
mathematics into contrast. The whole idea of 
relativity could receive origin only in the brain 
of a mathematician, not an artist. 

The Kantian mathematics, which is based on 
the relation of subject to object, is the more 
plausible of the two. The relation of subject 
and object is a contrast of utmost importance — 
really, the greatest contrast. Spherical space is 
what the ego makes for himself (the circle of the 
horizon, the dome of the sky). The sphere is 
the material symbol of infinity. 

The manner in which Einstein proceeds is fit for 
a child, as follows : He begins to show, as the 
strongest argument for relativity, that all motion 
is relative, that there can be no absolute motion, 
and then concludes with spherical space. In 
spherical space motion becomes absolute; for 
nothing can go beyond the periphery of the 
sphere. It is in this way that relativity defeats 
itself when carried to the bitter end. Also, a 
child might ask, What is beyond the sphere? In 
infinite space all motion, however swift, is nulli- 
fied; is evident only as it produces a contrast. 

125 



The ego, and the matter of his object, is always 
the center in infinite space, but relativity is afraid 
of the concentration into a center, as not being in 
line with its empty mathematics. Concentration 
into a center and radiation from a center is a 
most important process in nature. 

Relativity demands a space that is equivalent 
to matter, "that is nowhere empty of matter" ; 
but the interpretation by contrasts does not re- 
quire that, according to the proposition that mat- 
ter, the finite, gives contrasted meaning to space, 
the infinite. In infinite space the ego and his 
matter is the concentrated center. 

The following is the key to the situation: In 
mathematics there is no sharp edge: the numeral 
one can be multiplied or divided to infinity; every- 
thing is really relative, but the sharp edge of ma- 
terial reality produces sharp and lesser contrasts. 

The mathematician who gets his idea of rela- 
tivity from empty mathematics and who seeks to 
apply that principle to the real universe must 
come to ridiculous conclusions; for example, he 
must have finite space. Matter cannot be relative 
to infinite space; it can only be a concentrated 
point in infinite space. In order to be relative, 
space must have a form the same as matter, it 
must become of an identical nature with matter; 
it then becomes relative, as the greater is to the 
lesser. But space that has a form would require 
another space to give it form. Spherical space 
requires a most unthinking person to consent to. 
After making space finite, the relativist does not 
know what to do with time, which, according to 
his mathematics, should be infinite; he cannot 
place it. He is therefore obliged to destroy its 
reality as a contrast to space, and make mathe- 

126 



matics out of it. He can then add it on to space 
as a fourth dimension, or do anything he likes 
with it. The interpretation by contrasts solves 
the whole problem; i.e., time and space are con- 
trasts of each other. Matter is the lesser contrast 
of time and space. Matter, the finite, is the con- 
trast of time and space, the infinite. Contrast 
and relativity may appear to be the same thing, 
but they are not. 



Nature Changes from Contrast to Motive, from 
Motive to Contrast 

As a final explanation of the nature of reality, 
it should be remembered that while it is true that 
contrast is the principle that brings definiteness 
out of chaos, yet every sphere, ever} 7 part of 
nature from the highest ensemble to the merest 
detail, alternates from contrast to motive, and 
from motive to contrast. 

The motive appears as an interesting mystery; 
it affects the emotions and not the mind. There 
is the mind and there is the heart. All scientists 
have difficulty on this point, for the nature of 
their work is intellectual analysis, and so they 
become mathematical and motiveless. 

The motive of mystery need not always affect 
us as beauty; there are the nether motives (the 
motives contrast each other). The motive may 
be utility, i.e., we may be struck with the remark- 
able way in which different parts of nature, or 
of an organism are linked together. We may 
find interest in the clash of power. Then again 
power may hide itself under a garb of humor. 
Humor is an ensemble. When the ego is able 

127 



to laugh, it means that he has power in control. 
Contrasted action and the inspiring motive of 
mystery are opposites to each other, as the in- 
tellect and the emotions in a human being are 
opposites. (Whenever two contrasts only are in 
evidence, time and space forms its greater con- 
trast; but too many lesser contrasts can not be- 
come evident in reality, without a lesser motive 
intervening.) 

* * * * 

Is it not strange how ignorant scientists are of 
metaphysics? They rush headlong into theism 
as if Schopenhauer never existed. They do not 
seem to understand that the "Will" is the un- 
conscious motive which evolves mind and form. 
All they know about Schopenhauer is that he was 
a pessimist. As a result, we have such examples 
as Wallace and Sir Oliver Lodge talking about 
the "directive mind" of a God and scores of 
others like them. Almost every scientific book is 
disgraced with a discussion about the difference 
between mind and matter. As soon as they get 
away from old-fashioned materialism they are at 
sea. If they receive evidence of another life they 
kneel to pray. 

The English scientists have all been misled by 
Spencer and his "unknowable," but even the Ger- 
man scientists are still ignorant of Schopenhauer. 
Spencer either did not understand Schopenhauer, 
or he could not get an English translation. 

* * * * 

The mind ever inquires for a cause, but the 
mind does not know that its search for a cause is 
necessitated by the need of a contrast. 



128 



The motive is the infinite, the Absolute, God, 
the unknowable, and all other such absurdities 
that philosophers invented. The motive is un- 
knowable to the mind; it is for the senses. The 
mind knows only contrasts and relativity. 

Immanuel Kant, the Snare of Modern 
Philosophy 

The relation of the subject to the object is a 
very important contrast, a relationship very much 
like that of the center of a circle to its periphery, 
which is a permanent form throughout nature, but 
it is only one contrast among many. 

The important relationship of subject to object 
becomes more evident in esthetic interpretation; 
when the ego is able to reshape reality, the im- 
portance becomes greater still; when in the super- 
state the ego is master of the circle of the horizon, 
but of all things, time and space are furnished 
to ego ready-made. Time and space have en- 
closed matter before the ego became conscious. 
He has no power over that, though his will may 
shape matter and the variations of matter to his 
heart's content. His finite being and the finiteness 
of matter gives meaning to time and space, the 
infinite. Time and space give meaning to each 
other. There is no need of anything a priori. 
There is only vision and deduction from vision. 
The ego is only a means which the Will to Beauty 
employs. It begins with time and space, the first 
contrast, and completes itself with man and 
woman. 

If it were not for Kant's elaborate transcen- 
129 



dentalism, some poor crayon artist might have 
told Schopenhauer what it all amounts to. 



Sir Oliver Lodge 

The "dead" live in the ether, if by the word 
"ether" is meant a condition of force. In that 
case we live in the ether also, only that the con- 
dition of force we live in is not yielding to our 
will. 

Why bring in ether when everything is force? 
Force is meaningless until it produces a contrast, 
that is the idea. 

The "dead" occupy space, the same space that 
we live in, only that force (or the ether) yields 
to their volition, while in our planetary state force 
yields mainly to the unconscious Will. 



Cause and Effect 

The meaning of cause and effect must be under- 
stood, so that the mind can be cleared from false 
notions. Cause and effect is equivalent to con- 
trast. The "principle of sufficient reason" is the 
sense of contrast; all contrasts flow into a motive 
where they are lost and become invisible. 
* * * * 

Empty mathematics can also be reduced to con- 
trasts and variations: it can be added because it 
can be subtracted; it can be multiplied because it 
can be divided. Infinity is the motive of mystery 
in mathematics. The relativity of mathematics 
becomes contrasts as soon as it touches reality. 

130 



Time and Space 

And now to recapitulate the nature of time and 
space. Time and space are contrasts that flow 
into the motive and stop there, the same as cause 
and effect and all other contrasts are traced to 
the motive only. It is for this reason that time 
and space cannot be said to have an infinite past, 
although in the empty mathematics of the mind 
infinity works both ways, past and future. When- 
ever the motive expressed itself in matter, time 
and space appeared. We may reason, however, 
that time has a future infinity, according to the 
principle of vision and deduction from vision, as 
follows : Space shows infinity immediately ; we can 
reason from this that time has a future infinity, 
for they are only contrasts of each other. (The 
immediate infinity of space is made evident by 
matter, the finite. Matter, the finite, gives con- 
trasted meaning to space, the infinite.) 

The ego is the concentrated center of all mat- 
ter. 

The Mistakes of Nietzsche 

It is strange that upon a knowledge of the 
nature of time and space all philosophy depends. 
If time has an infinite past, argued Nietzsche, 
then the universe should have attained balance. 
The fact that there is still clash and struggle 
shows that the universe has no aim but struggle — 
power seeking to exceed itself — and when the 
Will to Power reached its climax in the ego, or 
exhausted itself with the decline of the solar sys- 
tem, it had to begin all over again, for time is 
infinite. This is a most pessimistic outlook, but 

131 



Schopenhauer had already done that. There was 
nothing else for Nietzsche to do but to glorify 
power, to write about the esthetics of power. 
Had Nietzsche known that time and space are 
contrasts, and that all contrasts flow into and end 
with the motive or Will, it would have been all 
different. If time has no infinite past, then we 
may be living in a young universe. We have hope 
of reaching to something better than aristocracy 
and the "order of rank." 

Nietzsche's next difficulty was that he had no 
definite idea as to the nature of matter (reality). 
This he covered continually with art and clever 
aphorisms, "the process of falsification," as if a 
work of art could construct itself without em- 
ploying sharp and lesser contrasts. 

Had Nietzsche known that matter is the lesser 
contrast of time and space, he could have no ob- 
jection to an invisible world where the Will strikes 
a balance and is at the same time just as "ma- 
terialistic" as the planetary state. Schopenhauer 
at least held on to the relation of subject and 
object, but Nietzsche became nebulous. He de- 
nied that the universe is an organism ; the relation 
of subject and object was unimportant; cause and 
effect had no meaning; and all known truth is 
only the process of falsification which the Will 
to Power employs. He disorganized all the 
known forms of reality without being able to put 
forward the basic principle which lies underneath 
the present forms, i.e., contrasts. 

The motive of the universe must employ sharp 
and lesser contrasts the same as a motive of art. 
Not to know this is only to fall into weakness, 
and you cannot cover this weakness by being ar- 
tistic. (See "The Will to Power," Vol. II.) It 

132 



is true that art is interpretation and that the Will 
is an interpreting force; but in every interpreta- 
tion there is a rational construction. This vacant, 
though clever, writing of Nietzsche only paved 
the way for the more vacant philosophies of 
Bergson and William James. 

Nietzsche's most unpardonable error was that 
of ''finite space," "spherical space," a limited 
space that is nowhere empty of matter. This 
idea found its culmination in the empty mathe- 
matics of relativity. How can space have a 
form? It would require another space to give it 
form. Here, too, contrasts would have helped 
Nietzsche; i.e., matter, the finite, gives contrasted 
meaning to space, the infinite. No matter how 
great the quantity of matter, it could only be a 
contracted point in infinite space. We see from 
this how important contrasts are as a key to time 
and space and matter. We can also see how a 
philosophy is built up. 

The Mind, the Amplifier 

The human organism is a unit. Every part of 
the organism, whether it be the body, the senses, 
the mind, or the grand emotions, presents the 
phenomenon of continuous change from contrast 
to motive and from motive to contrast. Con- 
trasted action in the mind is no different from con- 
trasted action in the physics and the chemistry 
of our environment. The objective environment 
of the ego changes from contrast to motive and 
from motive to contrast the same as the ego, the 
subject. The relation of subject to object is the 
most important contrast. Because nature seeks 
the climax of its passion, therefore it requires a 

133 



mind. That is all that being conscious means : a 
higher mode of vibration. 

The mind may construct an emotion or remain 
invisible behind the emotion. (See corroborative 
detail in "Psychoanalysis.") What psycho- 
analysts call the "unconscious" is nothing but the 
retreat of the mind (contrasted action) into the 
motive. 

The great unconscious motive of the universe 
is the Will, which was first conceived by Schopen- 
hauer. The Will seeks itself in forms of reality 
by continuous contrasted action until it reaches 
the mind in an ego. The body of the ego is the 
concentrated center. It is the body which makes 
him an ego, otherwise the unconscious Will of the 
universe can be said to "think" in the sense that 
it constructs its motives through contrasted action. 
When secretions enter the blood, due to the ab- 
normal action of certain glands, they stimulate 
thought and action. 

It is because the ego has an amplifying mind 
that he is able to attain finally to high emotion 
without sorrow. The Will to Beauty seeks itself 
in the ego, then places the ego in the superstate. 
This enables the ego to select from nature's forms 
of reality those appropriate to his nature, to imi- 
tate the reality of matter; for the reality of our 
planetary matter is nothing more than a complex 
of motives and contrasts. It is because the ego 
has an amplifying "mind" seeking a higher order 
of arrangement that he suffers from obsessions, 
false beliefs, and insanity. Reverse energy com- 
mon throughout our present planetary arrange- 
ment is all it is. Nature hides a contrast of 
imperfection even where it is evidently perfect 
and beautiful, until it attains to the ego on the 

134 



plane of art. This imperfection in nature is its 
imperfect "thought." 



* * 



The mind, then, is nothing in itself, but an 
amplification, a structure of contrasts, by which 
means the motive reaches its goal. 

3fC 2|C ?|C 3JC 

There is no such thing as independent mind. 
The ego is a unit. There is no such thing as 
"pure reason." The mind is always prejudiced; 
i.e., it is always impelled by a motive, otherwise it 
becomes empty mathematics. The active mind 
in the ego, in that it is a complex of motives and 
contrasts, is no different from matter, which is 
also a complex of contrasts and motives, only 
that "matter" is the concentrated center, the point 
of contact. The universe may be compared to a 
machine composed of many wheels (motives) and 
double-acting levers (contrasts) emerging from 
the wheels. Force enters the machine at one end, 
and by the complex action of motives and con- 
trasts an interesting article is turned out at the 
other end. The ego is the interesting product. 

The force of electricity begins with its positive 
and negative poles, steam begins with its con- 
trasted levers, the Will of the universe begins 
with time and space and ends in the emotion of 
beauty (emotion without sorrow) in an ego. 
Towards that end a constructive mind is needed. 

The Self-Creative 

Reality is self-creative. All the self-creative 
reality of our environment is an evident relation- 
ship of subject to object. (Explanatory — exter- 
nal nature so arranges itself as to suit the wants 

*3S 



and characteristics of the ego.) It also modifies 
the ego, so that he will accommodate himself to 
the environment. It is this arrangement between 
subject and object, evident throughout nature in 
the relationship of the animal to its environment, 
as well as that of man, which probably caused 
Immanuel Kant to suppose that external time and 
space finds its counterpart in the mind of the ego. 
Time, space, and matter are sharp and lesser con- 
trasts that existed before the ego was evolved. 
Time and space serve to give the ego immor- 
tality, while matter permits him to have an appro- 
priate environment. The ego is the center of 
his self-creative environment, i.e., the center of 
his horizon. As the mysterious color quality on 
the surface of pottery is self-creative and yet it 
permits itself to be directed, so the self-creative 
reality of the superplane of art permits itself to 
be directed by the ego. The artist merely ar- 
ranges the matter that is given to him. The self- 
creative reality of our planetary state permits 
itself to be directed socially (with a loophole for 
death, for the Will cannot remain immortal on 
the planet). 

The self-creative is magic. 

The animal is not immortal because it is not a 
sufficiently appropriate center in the sphere of art 
in which the Will to Beauty seeks itself. The 
human egos, man and woman, are the concen- 
trated center. (The mind that asks for a cause 
for the self-creative, does not know that the inner 
meaning of cause and effect is only contrasted 
action — it is a means of accommodating the ego 
to his environment; it stops with the motive.) 
The universe is an organism, a plant that rises 
from root to flower, by means of sharp contrasts 

136 



and many lesser variations until its motive of 
beauty is attained. 

Free Will 

When an organism discharges its energy it feels 
free, but in reality its action is bound by the law 
of contrasts. The conscious ego has power to 
interpret and to select, but that liberty is only 
apparent. The mind means nothing. The ego is, 
after all, a motive that seeks arrangement, like 
all other motives. The present action may be a 
contrast or variation of a previous action or else 
the present action is an indication of what the 
future act will be, for every motive is not only 
itself (that which appears at present), but also 
contrasts and variations as yet not evident. 

Then, again, the character of a species may be 
contrasted to another; e.g., the beauty of the song 
bird in the tree is different from the beauty of the 
bird who does not sing but whose plumage brings 
a note of color to the foreground of a landscape 
— each is bound by its character. A more strik- 
ing example is the contrast of male and female; 
they are not free, they only feel free when their 
desires coincide with the Will to Beauty, and 
when an appropriate environment permits the 
expression of their desires. As soon as man acts 
according to a false interpretation or when an 
imperfect environment interferes, we are not free, 
we suffer. The unconscious Will to Beauty em- 
ploys the ego and his mind as a means of realizing 
itself. It also employs all nether motives, such 
as power and utility, as a means of constructing 
itself. The whole universe is force seeking ar- 
rangement. 

137 



Reincarnation 

The subject of reincarnation is almost too 
foolish to discuss, when the central doctrine of 
the Will to Beauty is understood; but to one who 
does not know that cause and effect in nature 
and the mind's action in judging from reason to 
consequence are both due to contrasted action, and 
that all contrasts are traced to the motive and 
no further, reincarnation will appear to the mind 
as logical, inevitable, even, especially when people 
believe in an after-life. It is the child's mind, 
the naive mind that does not know its own action. 
"I am here now; I must have been somewhere 
before." This deluded Socrates in the Phaedo; 
and even Schopenhauer and Nietzsche were not 
free from its taint. (See "Infinity and Chaos.") 
Furthermore, it implies an ignorance of the na- 
ture of matter. 

People ask, When we die, if we do not return 
to this planet, do we go to another planet? 

A motive acting through sharp and lesser con- 
trasts is all that there is to planetary matter, with 
the ego as the concentrated center in the circle of 
his horizon. 

If the human ego needs "development," could 
not the harmonic motive of the universe best 
accomplish that in the superstate, where the en- 
vironment is just as real and yet yielding to the 
ego, instead of separating people who have loved 
each other, and returning the mature mind to 
infancy? The ego does not need much develop- 
ment, he needs arrangement. The ego in the 
superstate is incarnated in a body the same as 
ours, he does not need to be reincarnated. There 
is no such thing as a soul or a spirit. 

138 



The Relation of Subject to Object 

This is the most important relationship. How 
else can it be? The ego could not exist if he did 
not correspond to his environment. Schopenhauer 
brings this out very clearly in the chapter on 
"Comparative Anatomy" in "The Will in Na- 
ture." Speaking of how the Will modifies its 
anatomical form in the animal, "according to the 
aims prescribed to it by external circumstances," 
he says as follows : 

If it (the Will) desires to climb about in trees, it 
catches at the boughs at once with four hands, while it 
stretches the ulna and radius to an excessive length and 
immediately prolongs the os coccygis to a curly tail, a yard 
long, in order to hang by it to the boughs and swing itself 
from one branch to another. If, on the other hand, it 
desires to crawl in the mud as a crocodile, to swim as a 
seal, or to burrow as a mole, these same arm-bones are 
shortened till they are no longer recognizable; in the last 
case the metacarpus and phalanges are enlarged to dis- 
proportionately large shovel-paws, to the prejudice of the 
other bones. But if it wishes to fly through the air as a 
bat, not only are the os humeri, radius and ulna prolonged 
in an incredible manner, but the usually small and sub- 
ordinate carpus, metacarpus and phalanges digitorum ex- 
pand to an immense length, as in St. Anthony's vision, 
outmeasuring the length of the animal's body, in order 
to spread out the wing-membrane. If, in order to browse 
upon the tops of very tall African trees, it has, as a giraffe, 
placed itself upon extraordinarily high fore-legs, the same 
seven vertebrae of the neck, which never vary as to num- 
ber and which, in the mole, were contracted so as to be 
no longer recognizable, are now prolonged to such a de- 
gree, that here, as everywhere else, the neck acquires the 
same length as the fore-legs, in order to enable the head 
to reach down to drinking-water. But where, as is the 
case when it appears as the elephant, a long neck could 

139 



not have borne the weight of the enormous, unwieldy 
head — a weight increased, moreover, by tusks a yard long 
— the neck remains short, as an exception, and a trunk 
is let down as an expedient, to lift up food and draw 
water from below and also to reach up to the tops of 
trees. . . . The ant-bear, for instance, is not only armed 
with long claws on its fore-feet, in order to break into 
the nests of the white ant, but also with a prolonged cylin- 
drical muzzle, in order to penetrate into them, with a 
small mouth and a long, threadlike tongue, covered with 
a glutinous slime, which it inserts into the white ant's 
nests and then withdraws covered with the insects that 
adhere to it: on the other hand it has no teeth, because 
it does not want them. Who can fail to see that the ant- 
bear's form stands in the same relation to the white ants 
as an act of the will to its motive? 

The ego in the superstate of magic and art 
represents the same relationship to its environ- 
ment as the animal that has a coat of fur, horns, 
and claws. 



Interpretation as a Means of Discovering the 
Truth, as Opposed to the Scientific Method 

In a universe where contrasted action is all that 
there is to reality, scientific analysis can only dis- 
cover parts. In every scientific discovery there 
is the empirical element of interpretation. 

Exact science is empty mathematics. 

Interpretation is the motive. No inventor can 
proceed without an interpreting motive, however 
little he may speak about it or confess it to others. 

Interpretation and analysis are contrasted 
methods of procedure, both are necessary. 

Interpretation is a faith, a vision, with the cor- 
roborative evidence deferred for a later time. 

140 



He that refuses to wait but must have the evi- 
dence at once can be as "scientific" as he likes, but 
he cannot go very far. 

This is especially true when we come to investi- 
gate the invisible sphere — psychic phenomena. 

To stop short at the immediate fact, is the 
same as for an artist to become engrossed with a 
photographic detail instead of seeking the en- 
semble. We must wait and the detail will take 
its place. 

I was led to the Will to Beauty by observing 
that an ensemble of vision changes prosaic and 
confusing detail into beauty. When I examined 
psychic phenomena I assumed that we live. When 
I felt profound emotion I assumed that it is the 
outlet which the Will to Beauty seeks in life. I 
then had courage to proceed with the corrobora- 
tive detail. 

Oscar Wilde and Whistler 

There are some very remarkable passages in 
"The Critic as an Artist," in "The Decay of 
Lying," and in "The Soul of Man under Social- 
ism," proving that Wilde had the vision of an 
artist. He needed the rational basis of Schopen- 
hauer and Nietzsche. 

The idea repeated throughout "The Critic as 
an Artist," i.e., that real life becomes more inter- 
esting when interpreted by art, that is the one 
great idea ; it is this which the Will of the universe 
is striving for by raising the ego to the superstate. 

To quote : 

E. Must we go, then, to Art for everything? G. For 
everything. Because Art does not hurt us. The tears 
that we shed at a play are a type of the exquisite sterile 

I 4 I 



emotions that it is the function of Art to awaken. We 
weep, but we are not wounded. ... It is through Art, 
and through Art only, that we can realize our perfection ; 
through Art, and through Art only, that we can shield 
ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence. 

This very same sphere of art is possible in a 
rationally constructed social order. It is toward 
this that Wilde's artistic nature was striving in 
"The Soul of Man under Socialism," but he 
lacked a rational basis. 

Where there is no rational construction the 
emotions go out in superstition and decadence. 
Wilde speaks against the academic philosopher, 
the abstractions of Kant, "the formless, intangible 
Being which Plato rates so high," "the illumina- 
tion of Philo, the Abyss of Eckhart, the Vision 
of Boehme, the monstrous Heaven that was re- 
vealed to Swedenborg's blinded eyes," but he does 
not mention the Will of Schopenhauer. Wilde 
was destined to attain profounder emotion 
through sorrow in real life (as is usually the case) 
than can be attained through art. Sorrow swept 
away his reason, or rather it found him without 
any intellectual base, and so he turned to religion 
in the "Ballad of Reading Gaol." He could not 
have done that if he had been convinced that the 
Will is an unconscious motive seeking conscious- 
ness in an ego. 

It may also be said that if Nietzsche had the 
artistic nature of Wilde, and his sense of humor, 
he could not have taken the Will to Power so 
seriously. Wilde's hermaphroditic nature is an 
error with regard to the law of contrasts. Na- 
ture's object is the contrast of man and woman. 

Whistler might have helped Wilde, or else 
Whistler might have continued Schopenhauer 

142 



much better than Nietzsche did. Whistler was 
interested in spiritism, and his power of interpret- 
ing prosaic reality into beauty by vision in en- 
semble might have led him to the conclusion that 
the universe is the Will to Beauty. 

5JC 3|C 5JC 5JS 

The secret sorrows of life, my friends, the sor- 
rows that the unintellectual old man and woman 
bear, are greater than the emotions of art. If 
the Will to Beauty reached its climax in a con- 
dition of insufficient emotion, future life would 
not be profound enough. It is for the social order 
of the future to arrange life on a rational base, 
so that the emotions will go forth gradually in 
happiness and beauty, instead of reaching a hasty 
climax through pain and sorrow; it is then that 
the superplane of art will be realized amongst us. 



Walt Whitman 

Whitman suffered from the American prov- 
incialism of his time. His intellectual relation- 
ship with a retired clergyman like Emerson could 
do him no good. He needed Schopenhauer, but 
according to his own admission, "In libraries, I 
lie as one dead." That was his trouble, he did 
not read. His philosophy needed intellectual 
specifications. As it is, it is a hazy ensemble full 
of error; for example, his constant assurance of 
immortality is meaningless unless he told the 
reader that he based his belief on his experiences 
in seance rooms and psychic phenomena; this 
might be prosaic in the midst of poetry, but his 
poetry has intervals of prose just the same. Had 
he lived in Europe with the intellectual association 

143 



of Wilde, Whistler, Nietzsche, Wagner, and Karl 
Marx, he might have been the man to gather the 
scattered motives and write u The Will to 
Beauty." His "Leaves of Grass" shows that he 
had attained to profound emotion; such passages 
as these : 

Thus by blue Ontario's shore, I thrilled with the Pow- 
er's pulsations, and the charm of my theme was upon me. 
Till the tissues that held me, parted their ties upon me, 
and I saw the free Souls of poets. The loftiest bards of 
past ages strode before me. 

They are like the psalms of David : 

I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my 
dark saying to the lyre. 

The people of the future will need poetry like 
Whitman's, as they needed the Psalms, only it 
must be free from error. 

It only goes to show that emotion is not suffi- 
cient for the purpose of constructing a philosophy 
of life. 

Contrasted Styles in Art 

Here is a difficulty which troubles every artist, 
and which only the law of contrasts can make 
clear: 

Every style grows out of its opposite, as the 
day grows out of the night. There is only one 
theme in art, and that is the expression of in- 
terest and beauty on a basis of realism, but the 
artist who chooses one style will denounce that 
which is opposite to it, or else he himself, after 
exhausting one style, will drift into its opposite 
and regard his own former work as valueless, or 
if he admire two opposites, he will have difficulty 
in deciding which to follow. The law of con- 
trasts settles that. 

144 



Mediocrity and insincerity in art always remain 
mediocrity and insincerity, no matter what style. 
Such people go from impressionism to post- 
impressionism, thinking that by changing the ex- 
ternal form they will gain something. Either 
they lack emotion, or they lack the power of ex- 
pression. If they lack emotion, it is all off; but 
if they lack the power of expression, they should 
not worry, they need do nothing; sincerity soon 
expresses itself. 

Every style of art has its possibilities for the 
expression of realism, power and beauty, but in 
pure impressionism, i.e., the vision in ensemble, 
I see the greatest feat of painting, although there 
is a great deal of beauty and interest in the con- 
scious imitation of primitive effort, or postim- 
pressionism, as it is called; just as the photographic 
artists, the old masters, the English painters, 
have expressed a great deal of beauty by the mere 
pose of the figure and by lighting. 

There is a correspondence in the other arts. 
In music, elaborate orchestration that expresses 
subtle beauty is the highest feat, although the 
primitive folk-song style is an opposite mode of 
expression. 

Nietzsche contra Wagner 

Until now there was no philosophy that would 
permit the human emotions to flow in an ecstasy 
that dilates and glorifies the individual, instead 
of prayer and sorrow that humbles. The lyri- 
cism of Greek myth alone permitted that. 
Nietzsche tried to turn Greek philosophy to serve 
the need of the modern, but he lacked the 
Olympian inspiration. 

What could Dionysian ecstasy mean to us? 
145 



It is like presenting an ancient play to a modern 
audience. It invariably leaves us cold, it bears 
the mold of history about it. To Wagner, Christ 
and Schopenhauer's pessimism was more real. 
Christ and Schopenhauer had plenty of proof in 
the world-sorrow. The primitive intoxication of 
Dionysus had no basis in modern belief; it served 
the primitive mind of that epoch only. Early 
Greek belief was really the philosophy of the 
present "Will to Beauty" in the form of myth, 
not sufficiently amplified in clear reason. (The 
Socratic philosophy was an approach towards 
Christianity. ) 

Nietzsche could not supply the right philoso- 
phy. The idea of "The Will to Power" might 
inspire the warrior; Wagner the poet needed a 
vision of profounder emotion. Nietzsche's phi- 
losophy is after all only the esthetology of Ger- 
man militarism. 

JJC 5j« # * 

In Wagner's music, melody has attained suf- 
ficiently subtle expression, except that its beauty 
was wound about a Christian and medieval 
theme. Elaborate orchestration must not become 
intellectual; it must be subservient to deep feel- 
ing, to melody; it must not run away with itself. 
The person who occupies himself with that has 
more ambition than sincerity; he lacks a vision 
of sufficient beauty. With Wagner, the art of 
orchestration meant the construction of sincere 
emotion into melody of sufficient subtleness (in 
parts). A mode of expression contrasted to 
Wagnerian orchestration is the single melody of 
primitive simplicity. Every mode of expression 
is good if it is sincere. All sincere people have 
their mode of expression, they create their own 

146 



music in moments of deep feeling. Art is only its 
amplification by the intellect. 

* * * * 

After all, what is art that it should be made 
so much of? Art cannot reach to the height and 
depth of emotion; that is only possible in life. 
The artist has a vision of beauty, and then he 
takes a week to express it in appropriate tech- 
nique. Sincerity is art or, rather, all that is pro- 
found in art is a reflection of sincerity of feeling. 
The artist may forget that they who publish them- 
selves remain vacant. 

* * * * 

Nietzsche preferred Bizet's "Carmen" to the 
love-sorrow of Wagner's "Parsifal," with the 
usual ignorance of mankind who do not know that 
nature seeks contrasted modes of expression. 
(Religious ecstasy seeks a contrast in sex passion.) 

There is no reason why Parsifal should not 
be produced with virile Spanish music and dances, 
as an interlude (since the theme of Parsifal is 

false). 

* * * * 

The unconscious Will to Beauty holds in store 
for the ego the most wonderful emotion. They 
who have not felt it cannot believe it, but once 
felt, it is marvelous to know that the universe 
holds such depths of feeling within itself — it is 
more than words can tell. It satisfies the longing 
of the heart; all external commotion pales before 
it. It justifies the existence of the universe. 

Business 

Engaging in business reacts by destroying the 
esthetic nature of the individual. If the business 

147 



is on a large scale, it turns the human qualities 
into mechanist energy. It occupies one's time 
with foolish thought and leaves no leisure, for 
such people are never through with their work. 

These people become the patrons of religion; 
this is only adding insult to injury; they forget 
that they break the one great social law upon 
which all the others depend, i.e., by taking for 
themselves that which should be socialized, such 
as land, machinery, the means of social produc- 
tion and distribution. All crime can be laid to 
the false economic system, and to sex, which is 
indirectly aggravated by the economic system and 
religion. Our religio-economic arrangement does 
not permit eugenics, by which means the business- 
tainted mind, the advantage-taker, and the crimi- 
nal could be eradicated. Its wasteful method 
brings on forced labor that disfigures the form 
of man and humiliates his nature, and poverty 
which robs the woman of her pride and beauty; 
while a surplus output congests the world markets 
and brings on war. 

The pleasures of the business man are me- 
diocre; the stage, music, painting, soon descend 
to the level of their minds, for they are the ones 
that hold the reins of power; while the bashful 
sincerity of the sex impulse is by them desecrated. 
It is nothing for them to converse about that 
element of sex which the artist and passionate 
lover feels to be private. 

Such people make fun of the idealist, the phi- 
losopher, and sincere person; for the nature of 
business is insincerity, gain acquired by insincere 
means; the honesty of labor and production is 
not for them, they rather school themselves to 

148 



become adaptable to such obnoxious detail as 
their business requires; it is this which gives their 
faces the prosaic appearance; they would just as 
soon sell manure as anything else. 

There is nothing to learn from such people 
except how to be practical in an imperfect society; 
for they are not given to reason clearly, and yet 
clear reason based on an esthetic motive is the 
very thing that a woman admires in a man, as it 
sustains her emotional nature. The architecture 
of the business man is ugly, for it depends on the 
lot of ground. (See "The Perfect City.") 

Such things react on the eye of the beholder 
who is unconsciously affected by it, for the eye, 
as well as the ear, is negative to external sounds 
and sights; and nature did not create beautiful 
landscapes and song birds for nothing. As it is, 
each business man is in his own nook probably 
selling the same article that a competitor is selling 
a few houses away. 

Surrounded by ugly advertising signs, the 
stench of automobiles, the noise of drivers en- 
gaged in the art of competitive distribution, they 
spend their lives waiting for death. We can only 
repeat with the author of "The Right to be 
Lazy," "We materialists are sorry there is no 
hell where we can send such people to." 



* * 



In the superstate every man becomes an artist 
and a philosopher, so we need not be too serious 
— business is only a momentary delusion. 



Humor is force coordinated. The wielding 
of power is force in the process of clash. 

149 



Romanticism 

Romanticism is a condition of beauty or emo- 
tion that is not built on a construction of rational- 
ism. A reaction of imperfection is bound to take 
place. Of such nature is the sentiment in the 
popular drama and novel; such ideas as fame, the 
good fortune of becoming rich, social precedence, 
aristocracy, royalty, etc. In all the above forms 
of sentiment disappointment is due. 

We do not need good fortune at the expense 
of another's ill fortune; the highest is awaiting 
each of us. We need a rationally arranged social 
order upon which the emotions can construct 
themselves without sorrow or disappointment. 



The harmonic motive of the universe cannot 
stay satisfied in a condition of rich and poor, 
master and servant, good and evil. It seeks a 
condition where contrasts will go to form one 
harmonic unit, the same as the light and shade 
of a picture. It is idle to imagine that the motive 
of the universe is anything but harmonic; that 
being the case, what sense is there to preach and 
to condone, to seek to prolong a social arrange- 
ment where the above-mentioned contrasts are 
produced? A clash is inevitable, by direct opposi- 
tion or by subterfuge. There is no possible way 
of avoiding it (for nature is terribly powerful) ; 
it cannot be stopped from reaching its objective 
until the arrangement is right. Then what seemed 
the terrific clash of power becomes human laugh- 
ter. Human beings will arrange themselves in 
contrasted types, the same as two beautiful trees, 
which are different one from another. 



150 



THE GREAT PRINCIPLE IN CONSTRUC- 
TION 

First invisible mechanism, or rational construc- 
tion underneath; then nature, the human, beauty, 
emotion. 

EMOTION SATISFIES 

When a human being attains to profound 
emotion, he is satisfied; he does not need the ex- 
ternal commotion, e.g., the glory of conquest 
of Nietzsche's superman. The wielding of 
wealth and power is a means of stimulating the 
emotions to a human being who cannot otherwise 
feel deeply. It only means that the Will does 
not let people rest; they must have some form 
of commotion, but in profound emotion the Will 
rests compensated and satisfied. 



151 



THE HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN 

My friends, this is the doctrine that will deal 
the death blow to the religio-economic arrange- 
ment. The perfection of man depends on his 
weaknesses. 

All human qualities are a transmutation of the 
tremendous power that the unconscious Will 
holds within itself, viz., jealousy, envy, lying, 
stealing, conceit, eating, drinking, and sex love. 
All human weaknesses are good, except power, 
e.g., the skill of monopoly in business, conquest 
in war, and the powerful criminal. 

The human frailties appear as faults. They 
are faults now because the social order is false, 
but under a condition of perfection a human 
being that would be without these qualities would 
be inhuman. Among peasants, among uneducated 
people, among children and among animals, that 
naive quality remains, and it is for this reason 
that they are interesting. A human being is loved 
not for his pretensions to power and virtue, but 
because of his human frailties, because of his 
errors, in fact. The human is the climax of evo- 
lution, but respectability, civilization, is forced 
and uninteresting; it is a return to mechanist 
force. 

An example may be taken from astronomy. 
What good are the distant suns, their awful size, 
the terrible force hidden in them? The soft 

152 



moonlight on the road is an esthetic transmuta- 
tion of that terrible force. 

The clash of ponderous bodies in stellar space, 
the roar of the wild beast in the jungle, are but 
symbols of power, they are but fractions of 
power; but when man laughs, he exhibits power 
in ensemble. Power clashes and struggles until 
it can transmute itself into human laughter; just 
as the graceful movement of a woman's hand or 
the music among the trees is an ensemble. The 
powerful Will to Beauty has concentrated itself 
in a form and movement of grace; it has trans- 
muted its clash and thunder into a sound of har- 
mony. 

Why should unconscious nature first evolve 
man and woman and then tell them to struggle, 
first implant certain emotions and then forbid 
their expression? The unconscious Will only 
seeks consciousness (completion) in man and 
woman. Why should the Will struggle against 
itself? The sincere human ego is the most help- 
less, and in his helplessness, he is most perfect. 

The human ego shows his perfection in a condi- 
tion of imperfection even; his so-called imperfect 
acts, in a condition of imperfection, are a theme 
for a comedy or a tragi-comedy, rather than for 
a moralist; one might as well moralize to a goat 
in an environment where there is no vegetation. 
Nature is built on expression rather than re- 
pression. When a kitten is well fed it plays with 
its tail, otherwise it turns to prayer and supplica- 
tion; so be it with man, his God, and the don'ts 
of his ten commandments. 

A human being finds himself in an unnatural 
environment, where others have much and he has 
little; a cunning idea strikes him: he steals. A 

153 



religio-moralist-economist appears on the scene; 
he raises a hue and cry. How could you do such 
a thing! Instead a dramatist should be called, 
in order to get the "local color." Here is a 
human being, the height of nature's evolution, the 
Will of the universe individualized, in a world of 
great abundance, accused of stealing, when he has 
only given us an example of human dexterity. In 
the superstate, his every desire will materialize 
before him ; he will then laugh at himself ; laugh ! 
not repent. Unconscious nature evidently wished 
to evolve that cunning quality which enables him 
to steal, or else it would never come into existence 
(a certain amount of shrewdness is necessary for 
the health of the mind) ; under a perfect social 
order it would not be theft but humor, the same 
with every other human quality that might appear 
as a fault now. They are a part of our cunning 
make-up without which we would be a saintly 
abstraction or a marble statue. It is remarkable 
that a human being capable of doing these things 
was evolved, i.e., that the contrasts and varia- 
tions of force could ever attain to that degree of 
subtlety. 

A human being should not be preached to any 
more than a plant should be preached to; all 
you have to do is feed the root and the flower 
will appear. The human flower is emotion; but 
when people assume power, they frustrate na- 
ture's process of transmuting power into human 
interest and into beauty, and the flower of emo- 
tion finds an outlet in sorrow. In a false social 
order, false ideas of power and conquest are 
placed before the ambitious. Meanwhile the 
preachers are kept busy exhorting the populace 
to become "perfect." 

154 



A human being does not have to be successful 
at all; he is more interesting when he is not suc- 
cessful, because then the human quality has a 
chance to come forward. In time people will 
understand this; they will then laugh at them- 
selves. Foolish audiences listen with awe to lec- 
turers v T ho tell them about this great man and 
that greac man. The shepherd boy who became 
a statesman, the wood-cutter who became a presi- 
dent, the vagrant who became a millionaire, and 
the sinner who became a saint. Why, it is ridicu- 
lous ! There is nothing more beautiful than the 
helpless human quality. Man does not have to 
evolve or improve to a greater perfection; rather 
he must be saved from the "civilization" which 
causes his energy to express itself in the wielding 
of power. 

Power is evident — appears as a valuable factor, 
in imperfect nature only. In the beginning, power 
appears in clash, but in a condition of perfection 
power hides itself, it transmutes itself into an in- 
teresting human quality, into an expression of the 
face that arouses our sympathy, into helplessness, 
into human temptation and "sin," as well as into 
profound emotion. Whether the dominance of 
power expresses itself as business success, the 
domination of Nietzsche's monarchial superman, 
the power of the austere ascetic to dominate his 
own nature, or the domination of the machine 
over the human hand, the result is the same. 
The tremendous effort brings one nothing but 
disappointment. Nature does not want an exhi- 
bition of power. Nature has too much power; 
it is tired of it, it wants to transmute it, and to 
hide it. An example may be taken from chem- 
istry; the nitrogen which forms the chief element 



in explosives, the powerful oxygen and hydrogen 
transmute themselves into a green leaf, the petal 
of a flower, and into a drop of dew. Another 
example may be taken from astronomy. The 
distant suns serve a mechanist purpose, they keep 
the stellar system in place, they gather the 
meteoric matter that might otherwise destroy our 
solar system, but that is not visible to us; all 
we see are stars in a dome of azure. All that tre- 
mendous energy has subjugated itself for the sake 
of our little planet. Nietzsche's stern superman 
can remain stern until an insidious microbe finds 
its way into his entrails and gives him the cholera ; 
he then is forced to bend in two ; he yields. Then 
all nature either mocks at him or pities him. 
The celibate ascetic gains nothing for all his 
effort but an "impure mind." Nature does not 
need his self-torture, his "immaculate conception," 
and his philosophy of hate and anger, for sex is 
nature's central motive. He might as well be a 
sinner and be human. The successful business 
man acquires pelf and a despicable appearance, 
and as regards the domination of the machine — 
I cannot speak of it, it would require a volume 
of Lamentations. 

Let no mortal imagine, then, that he can bring 
forward an arrangement of power that will sup- 
plant the human and the naive. There is no God 
that answers the prayers of clashing armies on 
the field of battle ; there is only a God that seeks 
to extricate himself from the clash of power and 
to hide himself under a garb of impotence. 

Nature's imperfection is greater than man's 
idea of perfection. The idea of "perfection" is 
the reflex action of the machine. It is due to 
man's fear of God. When he sees the thunder 

i 5 6 



and lightning, he decides to take the vow of celi- 
bacy and abstinence. Nature is profounder, more 
interesting, than human conventions. Observe 
the "color quality" in nature; a leaf, the varia- 
tion of a shell or a pebble, the fur of animals, 
the subtle color of birds' feathers. Human char- 
acter, likewise, holds within itself a profundity 
if unhampered by the conventional power of the 
religio-economic order or the need for outward 
etiquette and politeness. The people that can 
accommodate themselves to a false social order 
are the empty, the spoiled; they take their hat 
off, they speak politely, but they are only machines. 
Observe simple people when the stern force of 
the monarchial or capitalist state confronts them. 
How beautiful is their helplessness, compared 
with an exhibition of power ! That wonderful 
quality in a human being which arouses our sym- 
pathy, our sense of humor, which permits us to 
be intimate, that is the true profundity; but 
"greatness" and "power" are externals not yet 
transmuted into the human. They frighten us, 
as the elements frighten us. 

The self-denial of religion is only the opposite 
extreme of the power of the monarchial or capi- 
talist state, — another form of power, the human, 
is the harmonic outlet. 

Emotion must not be forced out of a human 
being by religion. We must have the faith that 
emotion will construct itself upon its nether mo- 
tives, upon the appetites, the desires, and pas- 
sions, upon humor, upon sex, upon the expression 
of every human quality. They do not have to be 
suppressed in favor of religion; all these are like 
the roots and leaves of a plant that gradually 
lead to the flower. When these nether motives 

157 



are suppressed, they reverse themselves, then 
"evil" makes its appearance; the human being 
has not had his fill of them, the same as if the 
roots of a plant are not fed sufficiently (a new 
order of contrasts and variations makes its ap- 
pearance in the character of man). 

Human emotion satisfies the secret longing of 
the heart; then the human being shows his great- 
ness. He does not need fame or power as a 
stimulus; everything else is childish, empty, 
theatrical. 

The wielding of power by any individual in the 
social organism does harm to society. How else 
can it be? — the master must have his servant, the 
domineering conqueror, his victim. Then re- 
ligion enters; these two, power and self-control, 
destroy the innocent, the naive, the beautiful hu- 
man qualities. The human qualities are stultified 
by mechanism, they go to asceticism, on the one 
hand, or to the opposite extreme of drunkenness 
and decadence. Then a false heredity enters, 
and imperfect people are born; (unconscious na- 
ture depends on the ego for arrangement). 

There is really nothing else but socialism and 
a eugenic arrangement. Then the knowledge of 
the true philosophy will bring out the emotions in 
happiness. 

*** *f* *t* *?* 

It must be remembered that socialism is only 
a mechanist arrangement; it must not come to the 
front and destroy the human. By its means, 
human drudgery will be relieved; the emotions 
will not have to exhaust themselves in pity, and 
nature's lavish wealth will not be doled out in 
charity. 

2f£ 3ft 3|C 3JC 

158 



The human being is perfect; all that is neces- 
sary is an environment where his energy will not 
imitate the clash of power among the elements, 
but will transmute itself to wit and humor, and 
to the love of realism in art, until it reaches at 
intervals the flower, emotion. 



Every human emotion is wonderful. Every 
human movement is perfect, a shrug of the shoul- 
der, a motion of the hand, the expression of the 
face; sex desire is goodness; timidity and bash- 
fulness are signs of sincerity; laughter and tears 
are ensembles of the universe. But an exhibition 
of power frightens away what is human. 

People who are easily frightened appear weak, 
but there is more power integrated into their 
make-up than in those who dominate. Perhaps 
in the embarrassment of our imperfect social 
order they become confused and commit some- 
thing contrary to its laws. The harsh moralist 
may censure such a person, but one who is more 
profound will see in their very frailty a sign of 
greater sincerity. They are like a frail vessel 
that must be handled carefully. It is for this 
reason that the Will to Beauty has prepared for 
them the superstate where they can laugh at 
power. 

* * * * 

Self-control always finds its antithesis in the 
wielding of power over another — if not in the 
same individual, then in the social organism. 
Self-control brings sorrow to oneself, the wielding 
of power brings sorrow to others. 



159 



Nature shows its utter contempt for power 
when it opposes the insidious microbe against the 
most powerful organism. Man's power is in the 
realism of humor and the realism of art. 



The contrasted viewpoint of Schopenhauer and 
Nietzsche is only the religio-economic arrange- 
ment over again. 

jjt *p *p *t* 

Nature does not care anything about morality. 
The morality that is preached in an imperfect 
social order only serves the exigencies of the 
moment. There is nothing that can stop an im- 
perfect social arrangement from kicking back 
under strain. When the arrangement is such that 
one class of people are preached into the practice 
of virtue and charity, another class of people will 
find it interesting to practice craftiness. Observe 
that it is this perverse quality of a human being 
which makes of him a being of great interest to 
the artist, playwright — much more than the peo- 
ple that conform — just because he betrays the 
human. 

Where the near-sighted dramatist sees villains 
and heroes, the artist sees humor, the cunning, the 
naive, or else an occasion for pathos or the 
emotion of beauty. The artist-playwright draws 
more humor, more of the human touch, out of 
the lives of vagrants and pickpockets than out of 
the lives of respectable people ; in fact, he is more 
likely to blame the respectable people. If his 
vision is very wide he will not even do that; he 
will see them, too, as poor puppets, helpless, 
moved by invisible strings; the cholera makes 

1 60 



them bend in two, and a toothache swells their 
faces the same as anybody else. 

Upon the great stage of life, the superplane 
of art, it is the same; imperfections disappear, 
morality and immorality disappear, the human 
frailties become a source of interest instead of a 
problem. The interpretation of the artist be- 
comes a reality on the plane of art. 



The human ego is like a rough stone or jewel 
with an interesting color quality. When he is 
polished down he may fit into an imperfect social 
order of repression, but he will not fit into Na- 
ture's scheme of expression. Nature has evolved 
these human ''imperfections"; it has put together 
an interesting human quality out of uninteresting 
power. 

Power transmutes itself into a mood, an ex- 
pression of interest, into an appealing feature. 
The very qualities of error are wonderful. The 
mathematics of force has become a human 
"error," a "sin." 

Even the "pettiness" of the human being has 
a meaning. In an appropriate environment the 
ego would not be interesting enough without this 
"pettiness." That human frailty which Nietzsche 
would call the negative expression of the Will to 
Power has more power hidden into it than evident 
power. The noble lord is theatrical; there is 
more "color quality" in a beggar. 

There is no evolution for the "imperfect" 
human ego unless we wish to call the awakening 
of profound emotion evolution. There is only 
arrangement on the superplane of art, where the 
human qualities become interesting. And the 

161 



superplane of art, my unsophisticated friends, can 
be made just as much a reality under a condition 
of economic independence such as socialism, as it 
is in the superstate of individualism. 

People do not understand this now; they are 
intimidated by the religio-moral preachers. Some 
people think that they have to be reincarnated a 
number of times before they can become "per- 
fect." I would invite such people to visit a cage 
of well-fed, hence sociable, monkeys; they might 
then see how much more interesting is the naive 
than the saintly. Observe vulgar people away 
from the rigor of polite civilization (where 
power is not resorted to). Listen to the conver- 
sation of market people in small European towns, 
and learn. 

* * * * 

Emotion should not be preached out of people, 
the human is interesting enough. Nature takes 
care of our emotions. Life brings them out. 
Nature is a plant that grows from root to flower. 
The ego is a plant that grows into flower in good 
time. We need a social order that will permit 
the human being to live without struggle. We do 
not need religion. The best religion is to permit 
the ego to laugh at God and morality. 

* * * * 

And now should the question be asked, Is there 
nothing virile? Is there no stamina in human 
character? My ready answer (and I consider 
this the strongest point in the book) is: That 
which gives strength to a work of art gives 
strength to human character; i.e., contrasts and 
variations. The virile painter puts his sharp and 
lesser contrasts just where they belong. It is that 

162 



which gives a thing distinction and "power." The 
mediocre artist, who has no decided vision, has 
the lights, shadows, and half-tones all over the 
picture. By contrasting his moods the superman 
attains to the highest order of power; not the 
actual picictice of power of the domineering aris- 
tocrat or the self-conquering ascetic. (See "Be- 
yond Good and Evil.") 

Schopenhauer was discouraged because he 
could not dominate his passions, and Nietzsche, 
who was sick most of the time, strained in an 
opposite direction. It is the religio-economic 
over again in spite of their atheistic basis. 

The superman may go from the interesting 
color quality of the human to a clear intellect, 
where from nebulous mystery the scheme of 
things becomes evident, but he will be no more 
than a chess-player who makes clever moves 
with kings and queens, bishops, knights, and 
castles ; he cannot dominate over another ego, for 
the other would have the three dimensions of 
space to escape to, and live in self-sufficiency. He 
can no longer lead combats and own industries. 
He may go with his beloved, from nature 
ecstasies, to the satiation of sex, and from that 
they may go together to vulgar and daring 
humor, and to feasting, but in all this, power be- 
comes lost. Contrasting the mood is what gives 
strength. 

The human "imperfections" need no more be 
eliminated than the ego need be castrated. He 
never becomes so angelic that he does not need 
to evacuate. 



163 



THE SOCIAL ORDER OF THE FUTURE 

A Corollary of Styles and Forms Around the 
Central Figure of Sincerity 

The anarchist is hasty; he anticipates the con- 
dition of individualism in the superstate. The 
planetary arrangement is intended to be social; it 
cannot be otherwise or we would return to prim- 
itivism. But (this is important) all government 
is mechanistic; i.e., its nature is power; it must 
therefore he kept in the background, so that it 
does not encroach upon the central figure, i.e., 
the sincere ego. 

The nature of government being utilitarian, it 
must not be elaborated upon, it must not over- 
awe. Even socialists might make the error of 
elaborating officialism. This is the true view- 
point. We must never forget that the universe 
arranges itself so that the individual can laugh 
at every manifestation of power. A perfect so- 
ciety is one which insures the individual against 
economic want. That is what nature does in the 
superstate ; everything else is theatrical, it resolves 
itself to styles of dress and styles of speech. The 
sincere ego remains the center; he can assume any 
part, the same as an actor. 

Nietzsche and his deluded exponents have cov- 
ered so much waste paper on the subject of aris- 
tocracy that I feel it incumbent upon me to analyze 
its significance. I find that it resolves itself into a 

164 



style of speech and dress and that actors on the 
stage can imitate it well. The only difference be- 
tween the stage and real life is that people in 
"real life" become fine actors as soon as they 
convince themselves that a given condition in the 
social order is their part. 

Aristocratic beauty might adorn the amorous 
relations of young men and women while they 
are waiting for monogamy, and it is best prac- 
ticed under a condition of socialism. When peo- 
ple do not have to worry about a living, true 
equality will enter. They can then play aristo- 
crats when they wish, and when they tire of that, 
they can take a ride in a hay wagon drawn by 
oxen and be peasants for a while, according to 
the law of contrasts. 

The future society need do nothing else but 
imitate the best styles and forms they choose, be- 
cause of the human quality that it possesses, be- 
cause of its realism, its humor, its goodness, or its 
beauty, but the forms evolved in a condition of 
utility and machinery are ugly and worthless. The 
proper place of mechanist-utility is the hidden 
base for the human and the beautiful. 

Let us take, for example, a monarchial form of 
government in the Middle Ages, or some town in 
Russia, during the time of the czars, or a town 
in Italy, Venice say, during its romantic period. 
We have here presented to us many beautiful 
forms for imitation, the simple dress of the 
peasantry — a mechanist civilization destroys the 
peasant — the style of dress of the craftsman, the 
various military styles, and the styles of the aris- 
tocracy. We have for imitation the vulgar speech 
of the market people, their bargaining and their 
cursing and then, if we wish to imitate a central 

165 



figure of sincerity, we have the poor depatriated, 
noncombatant Jew in the Ghetto. 

When I speak of the poor Jew as the central 
figure of sincerity I do not mean the Jew alone. 
There are many sincere people everywhere, 
among the poor all over the world ; poor Italians 
and poor Slavs are fine types of sincerity. Be- 
sides, the sincere person does not have to imitate 
any type, he is himself. The idea of the central 
figure of sincerity is a person who has not been 
deluded by the ostentation of power in the mon- 
archal or capitalist state; unspoiled by business 
success, in whom the human quality is not covered 
up by conventional politeness; who lives with a 
profound ideal. Such a one is nature's central 
figure who can assume any part in order to satisfy 
the law of contrasts and variations, just as the 
beautiful and profound woman can assume many 
styles of beauty. 

The society of the future will not permit ma- 
chinery to overrun their civilization, it will be 
utilized for sewerage. 

The true society will appear more primitive, 
the beautiful human forms that were evolved dur- 
ing the time when man was without the machine 
will be revived, the imperfections will be dis- 
carded; in other words, real life will be raised 
to the plane of art. 

Real life has a reaction in difficulty, but the 
make-believe of art leads one from one stage of 
interest to another, according to the law of con- 
trasts. Art makes reality more real without 
hurting us. 



166 



THE PERFECT CITY 

According to the process of concentration into 
a center and radiation from a center, the follow- 
ing arrangement in building social centers seems 
to me the most rational: 

The town should be a circle as nearly as the 
ground permits, with all forms of social recreation 
in its center (see illustration), for the central mo- 
tive of the planet is social. 

5 

CEMETEfiYLWD 



- ) CENTRE OF 

TOIV/I 




A continuation of these towns might form a 
large circle as follows: 

<7/VV7J.93iiOrf 



GO 



C£NTR£ I ' J *" 



Q 



1 Q o 



FORESTLANO 



167 



But the circle should not be noticeable, accord- 
ing to the principle that the mechanist nether 
structure should be hidden. The buildings can be 
arranged with freedom so as to form interesting 
roads and gardens. The face of nature should 
not be destroyed by blasting and bringing every- 
thing to a level, but interest should be maintained. 
The natural appearance of the ground is impor- 
tant. 

The buildings should be made to serve com- 
munal purposes, with large central courts or out- 
lying arcades. Great spaces should be left be- 
tween buildings. By concentrating into a rotunda 
with a central court more people can be accommo- 
dated than in long lines of streets. People who 
want individual cottages can go to the forest 
section. 

The large cemetery section will offer an oppor- 
tunity for people who want to be alone. 

The center of the city can have the theater, 
halls of music, etc. When there is no natural 
body of water, an artificial lake or canals would 
be appropriate in the center. This arrangement 
will be found good. Automobiles should be done 
away with; people will be able to walk the short 
distance or use covered wagons in time of rain, 
with slow-moving horses, or oxen, to imitate rus- 
ticity, or the age without the machine. 

If the circle of the town is too large it loses 
its value; if too small, its mechanist arrangement 
comes to the front. The houses should be placed 
at irregular points so as to avoid forming parallel 
roads, and to avoid bringing the circular arrange- 
ment into evidence. One mechanist road can be 

168 



placed where it will best serve utility, on the out- 
skirts of a large circle of towns, as follows: 




-ROA& 



This mechanist road, — automobile or railroad, 
— will touch every town in the large circle and the 
industrial and farming section between towns. 
The towns can be so arranged so that mines will 
be in the forest section, i.e., the locations can be 
manipulated. 

With the absence of automobiles within the 
town human life will be saved and the face of 
nature will not be marred. The location of 
buildings can be so manipulated so that a beauti- 
ful landscape will appear at every point and no 
mechanist arrangement evident. 



169 



OBSESSION 

Thus did Zarathustra hear a soothsayer speak; and 
the foreboding touched his heart and transformed him. 
Sorrowfully did he go about and wearily ; and he became 
like unto those of whom the soothsayer had spoken. — 
Thus did Zarathustra go about grieved in his heart, and 
for three days he did not take any meat or drink: he 
had no rest, and lost his speech. — -"Then did a roaring 
wind tear the folds apart : whistling, whizzing, and pierc- 
ing, it threw unto me a black coffin. — And a thousand 
caricatures of children, angels, owls, fools, and child- 
sized butterflies laughed and mocked, and roared at me." 

Thus did Zarathustra relate his dream, and then was 
silent: but the disciple whom he loved most arose quickly, 
seized Zarathustra's hand and said: 

"Art thou not thyself the wind with shrill whistling, 
which bursteth open the gates of the fortress of death? 
Art thou not thyself the coffin full of many-hued malices 
and angel-caricatures of life?" 

Thus spake the disciple; and all the others then 
thronged around Zarathustra, grasped him by the hands, 
and tried to persuade him to leave his bed and his sad- 
ness, and return unto them. Zarathustra, however, sat 
upright on his couch, with an absent look. Like one re- 
turning from long foreign sojourn did he look on his 
disciples, and examined their features; but still he knew 
them not. When, however, they raised him and set him 
upon his feet, behold, all on a sudden, his eye changed; 
he understood everything that had happened, stroked his 
beard, and said with a strong voice: 

"Well! this hath just its time; but see to it, my dis- 
ciples, that we have a good repast, and without delay! 
Thus do I mean to make amends for bad dreams! 

170 



The soothsayer, however, shall eat and drink at my 
side: and verily, I will yet show him a sea in which he 
can drown himself." — Thus Spake Zarathustra. 

All mediumship is a contagion of the super- 
state sphere of magic. 9 

The superman is able by volition, i.e., by the 
manipulation of energy, to create for himself his 
environment. The superman is positive, the cen- 
ter; he is therefore able to control his environ- 
ment, but the human being on the planet is nega- 
tive and subservient to his environment. 

Were the ego on the planet the master of his 
condition, the center, he would be able to manip- 
ulate his environment according to the law of 
contrasts, but as he is subservient to unconscious 
nature's process of contrasted action, he suffers 
continually a reaction of imperfection. When 
the ego on the planet becomes affected with the 
magical causality of the after-death state, it is 
only natural that the contrast of imperfection 
should make itself evident, as it is evident 
throughout the planetary arrangement. 

The Will cannot rest in our planetary arrange- 
ment. The Will is an unconscious force that 
seeks harmony with itself. These reactions of 
imperfection are called by religious spiritualists 
"evil spirits," but, there is no such a thing as evil 
spirits; this is absolute and final. Reactions of 
imperfection is all they are, reverse forms of 
energy. The whole planet must be looked upon 
as a thing magnetic. 

Whether these reverse forms of energy appear 
in the form of life like pictures of people, in solid 
materializations, or in sound, i.e., imperfect or 

* It is usually acquired by sitting in seances with other me- 
diums. 

171 



abusive language, it is all the same; they are all 
variations of reverse energy. When the time 
comes for a reaction, the reverse energy can trans- 
mute itself into any form of reversion. Mate- 
rialization in solid form is no more difficult to 
nature than the formation of sound. More often 
this reverse energy manifests itself by affecting 
the mind of the medium with obnoxious thought 
or erroneous belief, sometimes with insanity. 

The best transmutation of reverse energy is 
physical inner pressure on the nose and forehead 
and snapping of the jaws. By waiting quietly and 
patiently, instead of yielding to the obsession or 
erroneous belief, the movement of the jaws and 
then pressure appear. The reverse energy must 
receive outlet at intervals. When the obsession is 
very strong it is not easily transmuted to physical 
pressure. It is often well to initiate the jaw 
movement. The reverse energy is a force that 
seeks augmentation into commotion of some kind, 
but the jaw movement and the nose pressure that 
follow confine it and give it outlet. With people 
who are not mediums the reverse energy finds out- 
let in the worry and fear of death. Even relig- 
ious people who believe in immortality have an 
uncertain faith, but the medium has sure evidence. 
This consolation of the medium is sufficient cause 
for the unconscious devil-god to make trouble. 
The imperfect acts and crimes that people com- 
mit, the decadent insipid conversation, the stupor 
in which people live, their newspapers, their poli- 
tics, their quarrels, their divorces, their swindle, 
robbery, and murder, all that is so much obses- 
sion carried to the plane of action. They are 
forced into it as a mode of reversed energy. The 
obsessing force is rather strong in the beginning 

172 



of mediumship. Other movements of the face, 
head, and body, if they are involuntary, will serve 
to relieve the pressure on the teeth.* These in- 
voluntary movements will also serve to bring out 
the pressure on the nose and forehead. 

The reverse energy is satisfied, of course, if it 
can make the person religious. It is therefore 
dangerous for any person to become medium- 
istic; there is nothing better than the material 
reality. Speaking to the invisible especially con- 
fuses the mind. The mind is accustomed to being 
sustained by the senses, by seeing and hearing; 
otherwise it reverses upon itself and becomes con- 
fused, it loses control of its thoughts. A person 
who suffers obsession should not suffer alone; he 
should confide in friends who know the philosophy 
of the Will to Beauty. If he stops believing in 
evil spirits, his ailment will soon get better. Many 
poor innocent people, when discovering through 
spiritualism that there is an after-life, imme- 
diately assume the religious interpretation; the 
result being that they chastise themselves and 
suffer great embarrassment in silence on account 
of their "sins," usually sex relationships. The 
consciousness that their parents and friends in 
the superstate who were religious know every- 
thing is enough to make some people insane 
with worry. Let no one then assume the religious 
interpretation. Every human quality that we 
have in us from nature is good. All we need is 
socialism and a eugenic arrangement, so that the 

♦Note. — I find that a strong movement of the jaws without 
gritting the teeth is a sufficiently effective outlet to the reverse 
energy, although the snapping of the jaws is more effective. 
When the jaw movement does not produce itself it should be 
started. This is a thing of great importance ; otherwise the 
pent up reverse energy makes one nervous and irritable, or 
else it may seek an outlet in an unlooked for direction. 

173 



human qualities can express themselves without 
one human being injuring another. Lacking this 
environment, the individual cannot be blamed. 
There is no God, there is no sin, but there is an 
after-life, where we laugh at everything. 

In my years of experience, conversing with the 
"dead," there is one phrase that I hear repeated 
continually, and that is, "laugh at everything." 
Our dear parents, our children, our friends who 
have left us, are all enemies of religion; they are 
atheists, they are good-looking young people. 
They live lives of sexual pleasure. They laugh 
at their praying relatives; they are not sexually 
castrated, as the writers on spiritualism would 
have it. In order to encourage one, they em- 
ploy the most vulgar language. This is out of 
the goodness of their hearts. They have very 
profound emotions when the time comes for 
emotion. About the only things that they would 
blame one for is the domination of one man over 
another. I have heard mothers weeping and 
cursing when their children are made to do hard 
work, due to our present economic arrangement, 
where the business man lives by speculation and 
swindle and all social production haphazard is 
relegated to the worker. 

Some people who have been held down by 
society to menial labor, to servitude, curse and 
denounce when they come to the superstate, but 
that does not mean u evil spirits." In this they 
do only what is right; they are nobody's servant 
now. If the object of life is expression in beauty, 
how can a human being reconcile this with a life 
spent in street-cleaning, years spent in prison, or 
a lackey to somebody, or the humility of the con- 
fession of sins that religion imposes. Anger 

174 



and cursing are the only thing that would relieve 
one's feelings. A medium with a religious phi- 
losophy of life hearing this naturally comes to the 
conclusion that there are evil spirits; but this is 
false, human nature is more than good. There 
is no goodness like the goodness of the superman 
and woman; their beautiful tears are like the 
tears of a child. 

The superstate permits the expression of every 
human quality, which our present planetary ar- 
rangement does not permit; human nature is 
straightened out, there is no need for the wield- 
ing of power and advantage-taking, sex passion 
is freely expressed. The self-control of religion, 
which cripples one's nature, becomes unnecessary. 
People who wait for husband and wife on the 
planet live with others until a condition of abso- 
lute monogamy is attained, but the religio-eco- 
nomic arrangement produces a contrast of imper- 
fection. Some live in luxury and others clean 
their dirt. It is this same contrast of imperfec- 
tion which confronts the medium. It is for a 
similar reason that Hindu fakirs improve their 
magic by torturing themselves ; the reverse energy 
has an outlet. Obsession is a terrible sickness, 
but it is no more than the terrible plagues and 
diseases that are the lot of humanity. The un- 
conscious Will struggles to free itself from the 
planetary arrangement to the superstate, where 
force is in harmony with itself, where the clash 
of opposites becomes the rhythm of contrasted 
and variated motives. (See "Beyond Good and 
Evil.") 

People generally imagine that the human de- 
sires and passions should be suppressed in favor 
of religious emotions; it is this interpretation 

175 



which makes angels and devils. As soon as hu- 
manity understands that that which it calls "sin," 
eating, drinking, sex and laughter, are the neces- 
sary complements to religious emotion, a new 
world will bloom forth in beauty, and crucifixes 
and epitaphs of lamentation will be removed from 
tombstones. 

The reverse energy in nature produces the 
devils; they have no basis in reality. If the me- 
dium is religious, and avoids thoughts of sex, the 
imp of the reverse will produce for him pictures 
of sex, but if his mind has been occupied with sex 
thoughts in sufficience, religious ideas, and forms 
of sorrow, will force themselves upon his atten- 
tion; in other words, an opposition always forms 
itself. All forms of obsession are only a repeti- 
tion of the imperfect forms on the planet (the 
imperfect contrasts and variations of our arrange- 
ment), the dirt, the injustice, the cruelty of our 
world. Of course, when the period of reversion 
has passed, the medium can have beautiful emo- 
tions for a while. There is no medium living 
who does not suffer some form of reaction; 
neither is there a mortal living who does not suf- 
fer some form of reaction. In the future, when 
the law of contrasts is better understood, and 
society arranged accordingly, there is every rea- 
son to believe that obsession will become milder, 
and in time disappear entirely, in proportion as 
the imperfect reverse forms on the planet will 
disappear. The generations of the future will 
benefit by our sorrow. 

With a knowledge of the true philosophy it will 
be possible to converse with the good devil, the 
superman; (several people should be able to con- 
verse with the invisible much better than one, as 

176 



in this way the mind will be strengthened by see- 
ing and hearing each other), but under present 
circumstances it is a dangerous undertaking. I 
find that people in the superstate are very anxious 
to speak, but they cannot as long as the mortal 
entertains the religious interpretation, even if he 
were the best medium. I maintain that most of 
the phenomena of the seance rooms is self-cre- 
ative energy; the subconscious mind (motives) of 
the medium, his religious interpretation, produces 
itself magically. The slate-writing, the materiali- 
zations of the human forms, the voices, are pro- 
duced by motives, The ego in the superstate 
does not materialize (he is materialized, although 
a duplicate may form itself), he or she need not 
be present when the writing produces itself, or the 
voice speaks; it is the same as when a phono- 
graph speaks, or as when a camera produces a 
picture, or some electric automatic writing-ma- 
chine produces writing. The solid materializa- 
tions are no different than the casting of a statue ; 
they are wonderful as magical phenomena, but no 
different than the wonders that Hindu fakirs pro- 
duce ; they are produced by motives. 

If the person in the superstate has affected the 
medium once, a motive has been produced that 
will repeat itself continually without the superego 
being present. These motives are more powerful 
than the superego, who really cannot say what he 
wishes, owing to reverse energy and the religious 
point of view of the audiences. Audiences in 
seance rooms usually imagine themselves favored 
by visits from great personages. These person- 
ages are nothing more than motives, self-creative 
or induced by anybody in the superstate. There 
are no great personages in the superstate, all are 

177 



alike. The superman is one, although there is 
variation of type. This is of the utmost impor- 
tance and should be understood. All greatness 
is an external thing. Our relatives who have 
died and who have gone through profound emo- 
tions are as great as any. All genius in art and 
letters is only the intellectual amplification of an 
emotion. All intellect is only the amplification 
that the unconscious Will of the universe seeks. 
Some people are more intellectual than others and 
for that reason they come to the front. Intellect 
is too often misdirected. If we go to the poor 
sections of a city, we find many people who have 
gone through great emotion, great sorrow, but 
they do not publish themselves. All attain to the 
highest; people only begin differently. 

A motive is an affection that has not yet re- 
ceived formation or intellectual amplifications. 
The seed of a tree holds within itself the motive 
of the tree, which can take form under proper 
conditions. A motive in the mind of an architect 
will amplify itself until it takes the form of a 
stone edifice. 

The forms of obsession that appear to the 
medium are so clever and cunning that it is no 
wonder they are mistaken for real entities, for 
good and evil spirits; but if we consider that the 
human ego and his mind are amplifications of the 
unconscious motive of the universe, it will serve 
to explain the cunning of "evil spirits." The self- 
creative pictures and forms are clearer than those 

that the superman would like to show. 
* * * * 

No person should ever become too mediumistic 
by continuous intercourse with the superstate; he 
might as well die as do that. Even under the 

i 7 8 



best planetary conditions of the future, too much 
mediumship will cause trouble. The superman 
and woman are able to show themselves at inter- 
vals, and to make realistic pictures which serve 
the purpose of conversation. It is this picture 
conversation which makes the mortal too medium- 
is tic. 

When indulged in to a great extent, the me- 
dium becomes so sensitive, so negative, to his 
environment, that every motive, whether on the 
planet or in the superstate (principally motives 
from the superstate), enters his being and oblit- 
erates his own individuality. These innocent mo- 
tives speak through him, act through him, move 
his hands and feet, they "possess" him. The best 
cure for that is the realism of our own environ- 
ment, social and sex relationship. Even a child 
in the superstate can affect an oversensitive me- 
dium, for the mortal is negative. These motives 
stay in the medium and repeat themselves for a 
long time. 

There is this advantage, however; during this 
condition of oversensitiveness one absorbs, so to 
say, all motives. As they unfold themselves later 
on, the medium is able to know what has trans- 
pired in the superstate during his period of over- 
sensitiveness. Every detail repeats itself and un- 
folds itself. The medium becomes like the reel 
of a cinematograph. It is a thing to be avoided, 
however, owing to the great difficulty it causes; 
it does not permit the mortal to be himself, the 
motives stay in him and take up his whole indi- 
viduality. It is not the fault of the superman 
that he is positive and the sensitive mortal nega- 
tive. Even a person sleeping in the superstate 
affects the oversensitive medium. As the motives 

179 



unfold themselves everything becomes evident, the 
exact voice of parents, grandparents, and great- 
grandparents appears, whatever remarks they 
happened to make at that time, the exact nature 
of friends and strangers who happened to be in 
the vicinity. 

The great ecstasy of people who have just died 
and who are thrilled with the vision of immor- 
tality; the exact melody of grandparents musing 
and singing; their sex relationship ; in short, every- 
thing repeats itself. It gives the medium knowl- 
edge, at the same time it controls him and hinders 
him. 

Instead of mediumship one should study the 
philosophy of the Will to Beauty and live in one 
world at a time, the life of an artist and socialist. 
With regard to verbal conversation, there is the 
same danger. In a period of reversion the 
sounds become self-creative. They may alarm 
one, they may say things that the ego himself or 
herself in the superstate whose voice it resembles 
would never say. During these periods of rever- 
sion, the self-creative sounds are usually louder 
than when the superego actually spoke. The 
superego has many ways of communicating. The 
sounds of nature, the sounds of people conversing 
can be turned by the superego into other words; 
but every means of communication is liable to re- 
act and become self-creative reversion. The only 
thing to do is never to be frightened, to laugh 
at everything, to forget everything, and to live in 
the realism of one's material environment. The 
obsessed should avoid profound emotion. He 
must learn to distinguish between the real and 

the self-creative. 

* * * * 

180 



I use the word "superman" instead of "spirit," 
because the ego in the after-state is just as solid 
and real as we are, even though we are not able 
to see them. The superego is more robust than 
the ghostly and angelic mortal, and the women 
are more voluptuous. The word "spirit" gives 
one a nebulous idea. The superman comes nearer 
to the healthy animal. 



* * 



We need never worry lest our friends in the 
superstate are spying on us (for they are able to 
read our mind). Our mind, with all its human 
thought, is right; the way nature made it; besides, 
the superman and his wife are busy with self- 
indulgence. If we have troubles, they cannot help 
us. Nature fixed it so they can do nothing for 
others, but live for themselves. Let us remem- 
ber, above all, that all people are alike, that they 
become just as great, one the same as another, 
in a short time. People only begin differently. 



The ego in the superstate has the same mate- 
rial desires and functions that we have; eating, 
sleeping, procreation, evacuation. Mediums of 
the future will verify my observations as well as 
my philosophy. 

* * * * 

The superego does not travel from one place 
to another "with the swiftness of thought," as 
spiritualists would have it. His means of loco- 
motion is no swifter than that of the mortal. He 
can, however, convert his energy to gain great 
speed, the same as an automobile or train. He 
can also manage to see and hear at a distance of 

181 



a few hundred yards, and to project sound and 
pictures to that distance. 

It might be asked, "Why cannot the superego 
explain to the medium the philosophy of the Will 
to Beauty and avoid all this difficulty that the 
religious interpretation involves? Reverse energy 
is the answer. 

Unconscious nature cannot proceed anywhere 
without a reaction, e.g., the Will brings a beautiful 
forest into existence, but immediately after, the 
law of the jungle makes that forest a frightful 
place to enter, the poisonous plant, the pestiferous 
insect, and the powerful beast. Until the ego 
attains the climax of consciousness, he is a part of 
the unconscious motive; for every point gained 
there is a reaction of superstition, of obsession, 
of every kind of perverse reaction. 

2|C JJC JjC 3J; 

The medium of the future, who will proceed 
with the philosophy of the Will to Beauty will 
find the superstate a real world — none of the 
"God-bless-you's," the insipid and obnoxious con- 
versation of "spirits" in seances. The superman 
is very brilliant; instead of politeness, the con- 
versation is human, intimately vulgar even; as 
soon as it becomes religious preaching, moraliz- 
ing of any kind, the medium should assume the 
voice to be the reversion of self-creative energy. 
The superman and woman always encourage one 
to "laugh at everything." 

* * * * 

The superstate is no far off locality, the super- 
man and woman make their home in the space 
surrounding the planet; they are usually in the 
vicinity of their relatives. The invisible space 

182 



surrounding the planet holds all the generations 
ever since man appeared. (The "spheres" that 
spiritualists talk about is nonsense.) 

* * * * 

The human being, immediately after dying, re- 
mains suspended in space, the same as an aviator, 
the same as the planet is suspended in space; he 
becomes independent of the planet and its sun; 
although he follows the planet unconsciously. He 
is able to create his own heat, light, and power. 
I notice that the superman generates power by 
means of a rotary mechanist motion; this power 
he then proceeds to convert into all the forms of 
his volition, into food, into a tangible environ- 
ment (furniture) or into his horizon (a land- 
scape). Every planetary condition is imitated, 
with selection of course. The essence of interest 
is gotten out of it, while the danger of being 
hurt by the environment, as in our planetary 
condition, is absent. The superego disintegrates 
his environment, also, by the generation of mech- 
anist energy, which is utilized for the purpose 
of destruction. Planetary matter has only exten- 
sion for the superego; it has no point of contact; 
he can go right through it. There is no such 
thing as a "fourth dimension," there is only space, 
the same space that we live in. 

* * * * 

The superman and woman arrange themselves 
in constellations or efflorescences, i.e., an associa- 
tion of congenial friends who become very inti- 
mate and who encourage each other to live (sex- 
ually) and to laugh (that is the part of the 
woman). The men are comrades and engage in 
intellect and in humor. That relationship is dif- 

183 



ferent from the relationship of parents and chil- 
dren; different again when the superman and 
woman wish to be alone that they may express 
their profoundest emotion, according to the law 
of contrasts. 

SfC 2fE 5j£ *j» 

All this and more can be discovered through 
mediumship, once you have the right point of 
view. There is nothing that the medium cannot 
know. It is possible for a medium to marry some 
one in the superstate, whom he has never met be- 
fore; that is, promise to wait for each other; 
meanwhile they can exchange love and intimacy. 
The conditions for communication are so remark- 
able (through clairvoyance and cJaroaadience) in 
spite of the reaction of difficulty. 
* * * * 

The superego is not omniscient, although he 
has a broad view of things; the mortal can know 
more of detail because he has books. The super- 
ego is able to read the mind of the medium, to 
slant the mind, that is, move the mind of the 
medium with thoughts that the superego wishes 
the medium to think (that has its limitation) and 
also to bring forward past thought and action. 
But it must be remembered that the superego 
does not preach to the mortal, so one need not be 
afraid. 

This conversation is very difficult for the mind, 
and can only be done at intervals. The mind is 
liable to slip back to irresponsible thought, or 
obsession, when this is attempted. It also requires 
a thorough knowledge of the philosophy of the 
Will to Beauty, as well as experience; otherwise 
the medium is liable to credit to the superego re- 

184 



ligious thoughts, obsessions to "evil spirits," with 
a result of confusion and error. Whenever the 
superego slants the mind of the medium, it is 
usually accompanied with audible or visual evi- 
dence, otherwise it is meaningless; judgment 
should be used. The universe is so arranged 
that there is no secret. Everything is interpreta- 
tion. Sincere people respect each other's privacy; 

the rest is humor. 

* * * * 

I had endless visible and audible evidence of 
the existence of the superstate without the need of 
any other medium; continuously, daily, many 
times during the day. As soon as I conceived the 
Will to Beauty, the conversation became brilliant 
instead of religious consolation. I felt at times 
as if I myself were in the superstate. Such won- 
derful people ! Such goodness ! Such emotion 
expressed openly ! All are alike, all seek to for- 
get the imperfection of the planet. The conver- 
sation of the young men is so human, so good, 
such fine voices, holding within them 1 the richness 
of many emotions; but they are devils with the 
women; they are sincere I should say. That is 
all the deviltry there is in the superstate. 

New mediums will soon corroborate my point 
of view. I was able to recognize my mother's 
voice after a departure of thirty years, and my 
father's voice, who died later, most perfectly. I 
cannot begin to relate all the evidence. Every- 
thing depends on the point of view you assume. 
Fortified with the rational philosophy, the super- 
state becomes real, wonderful, but the medium 
who is a fanatic can come to all sorts of foolish 
conclusions. For example : — 

My grandfather (in the superstate), in order 

185 



to show me his skill as an artist-creator, made for 
my amusement most perfect pictures of dogs, 
with all the color, anatomy, and movements of 
real life. There are no animals in the superstate; 
they are raised to the plane of art (magic) the 
same as all natural forms. The superego is the 
center. The medium must not mistake pictures 
for realities (whether they are intentionally pro- 
duced by the superego or self-creative). Neither 
is the superego always able to produce pictures 
for the medium as he would wish to; the reverse 
energy does not always permit, but in his own 
sphere the superman and woman are absolute 
masters of their environment. Experience soon 
teaches one to know the difference between real- 
ity and the self-creative. 

* ^ *)* T 

I ask the new medium not to come to a hasty 
conclusion, but rather to reserve judgment until 
this point of view has been tried for a number of 
years. 

* * * * 

And now with regard to the opponents of 
"spirit" phenomena, there is only one class that 
requires consideration and these are the psycho- 
analysts. But these near-sighted people are just 
what their name implies; they are nothing but 
analysts, they have no synthetic vision. A Chris- 
tian Scientist has a bigger vision than they have. 

To ascribe all phenomena to the projection of 
the unconscious 10 in the ego, is no different than 

10 The motive is what the psychoanalyst terms the subcon- 
scious mind. The motive seeks outlet through whatever form 
it can (forms of the mind or forms of matter are alike modes 
of contrasted action). A reverse motive seeks outlet through 
reverse forms . The good motive selects whatever is invigor- 
ating and beautiful. 

186 



to ascribe the whole universe, and the ego, to the 
unconscious Will. That is all there is to reality, 
to matter and to mind — an unconscious motive in 
contrasted action. What is necessary is an in- 
terpretation. 

The medium enters a magic world, a world 
where materialization and dematerialization fol- 
low the wish of the ego instead of the cause and 
effect (contrasted action) of the planet. The 
medium is neither here nor there; it is natural 
that he should be confused. But if it is a question 
of reality, I should say that we are dead, com- 
pared with the reality of the superstate. 

It is true that the medium mistakes pictures 
for people, sounds for voices; it is true that the 
pictures and voices of people that have not yet 
died will appear to the medium, but all this 
"smoke" only shows that there is "fire." Soon 
greater phenomena appear, greater evidence ap- 
pears, evidence upon evidence, until it becomes 
overwhelming. Why, it is ridiculous! Vision 
brings faith with it. Emotion gives the mind a 
basis for interpretation, but with analysis you 
cannot go far, you remain with your nose to the 
ground. The detail of science must find its place 
in the ensemble, then it is valuable. 

Nature does not proceed from detail to en- 
semble any more than an artist proceeds that 
way. To an artist all reality is a thing that flows 
and accommodates itself. You must have faith in 
your vision, then watch for corroborative evidence 
in detail. Could a scientist invent a sensitive ma- 
chine that would register motives (in the pres- 
ence of a medium) , what reason is there to believe 
that it would not reverse, owing to self-creative 
opposing motives? It could bring no greater evi- 

187 



dence of reality than the marvelous slate-writing 
or materializations. 

* H= * * 

We need a rationally arranged social order. 
We will then be able to do away with nervous- 
ness, Christian Science, and psychoanalysis. 

* * * * 

I believe that the people of the future will em- 
ploy suicide whenever a very serious ailment 
overtakes them (science can discover a painless 
form). Neither will they seek to prolong a sor- 
rowful old age. 

* * * * 

The superego can affect the dream state of the 
mortal to the extent that conditions (the presence 
of reverse energy) will permit; but everything 
that the superego can do, can make itself by self- 
creative motives. There is no way of knowing 
the truth, except by interpretation, by using one's 
judgment. 

* * * * 

Reverse energy that has not exhausted itself 
may attack the dream state as an outlet. 

5fC 2|S 5jC Sgg 

One should pay no attention to the obsessing 
force. The reverse energy should be allowed to 
go through without putting any meaning to it. It 
is nothing but innocent force that cannot arrange 
itself in our present planetary condition. One 
should be sensible about it. All the unpleasant 
thoughts and words that are self-creative should 
be allowed to go through until the reverse energy 
exhausts itself. 

3J» S|E Jji 5}C 

188 



As an illustration of how the reverse energy 
acts : My grandfather made himself visible to me, 
but I felt strained, I could make no appropriate 
remark except the word "monkey" ; immediately 
after, his face, which was very fine, real, and life- 
like, made itself into a monkey in the picture. 
The reverse energy will take the nearest form of 
reversion as an outlet. A favorite outlet is self- 
chastisement, repentance, embarrassment over 
some trifle; should the medium disregard that, 
the reverse energy will probably form unpleasant 
pictures for the eye or for the mind's imagination; 
should the medium disregard that, a force of 
anger might go through him; should he control 
that, the jaws will begin to snap. When the re- 
verse energy goes out physically it is the best. 
Its worst form is when a poor human being wor- 
ries and blames himself, when as a matter of fact 
we are helpless. 

Reverse energy is continually accumulating and 
must have outlet at intervals. Why the reverse 
energy takes one form instead of another is not 
important; it undoubtedly takes the course of 
least resistance. Every form of reversion known 
on the planet is open to it and satisfies it. The 
medium opens up for himself new channels that 
reverse energy may take; but there can be no 
happier mortal than the medium who has learned 
how to find an outlet for reverse energy. When 
one outlet is blocked, the reverse energy will find 
another outlet, until it has exhausted itself. 



Why is the superego invisible? It seems to 
me that if he were visible it would interfere with 
our environment, it would becloud our sky with 

189 



forms foreign to the harmony of the landscape. 
Furthermore, if the superego were identified with 
the planetary condition he would become affected 
by its elements. 

Enough can be known through mediumship to 
serve our purpose. Force is invisible ; all there is 
to reality is produced by its contrasted action. 

* * * * 

The superman and woman become perfect 
adults whether they die in old age or in infancy. 
The child grows gradually, the cripple or insane 
person becomes perfect gradually. The negro 
becomes white gradually. 

* * * * 

Through mediumship I was able to feel the 
loftiest ecstasy, the deepest love, the sincerest ro- 
mantic passion. The emotions of a lifetime were 
crowded into weeks and every day held the full- 
ness of a year — emotions that I never felt before, 
although I lived for art and idealism two score 
years. I saw that profound emotion is the great 
reality, for everything else on earth seemed empty 
in comparison. I was inspired with the thought 
that the universe held such emotions. Never be- 
fore have I even dreamed of their existence. The 
tears of my father and mother and others whom 
I loved streamed through my eyes; and as I was 
too rational to rush to the religious interpretation, 
I conceived the Will to Beauty. I was rewarded 
for running the gauntlet of psychic obsession, the 
inevitable reaction in unconscious nature; I dis- 
covered a real world. 

* * * * 

I realize that it is possible to construct a phi- 
losophy of sorrow upon the same metaphysical 

190 



base that the Will to Beauty is based. There 
may be some who will attempt it. The religio- 
moral interpretation is a stubborn thing. It may 
hide itself under a garb of atheism. I myself 
was frightened in the beginning when I saw "evil 
spirits," but later experience dispelled the religio- 
moral idea. 

* # * * 

To all objectors, I can only answer: Every- 
thing is interpretation. 

Vision and Realism, Versus Fantastic Imagina- 
tion 

The impressionist painter finds that plain, un- 
prejudiced vision is the most difficult, that in fact 
a vacant stare brings an ensemble of its own ac- 
cord, without the need of idealizing; the result is 
beauty and realism. That is all there is to phi- 
losophy. Immanuel Kant made a discovery that 
the mind contains knowledge a priori. He had no 
better way of raising the universe from meaning- 
less static matter but by idealizing time and space; 
by making it something in the mind of the sub- 
ject as well as the object; and then instead of 
beauty, "the thing in itself." The fact is that 
there is nothing a priori in the mind but mean- 
ingless mathematics. 

The proper place of the mind is as the ampli- 
fier of the senses, and must not be trusted away 
from the senses. 

3(» 3JC Jj» J^C 

Man has paid a high price for his intellect. He 

has overburdened himself; the mind has run riot 

with false education which destroys native sin- 

191 



cerity. By means of that intellect, he has reared a 
structure of cold-hearted commercialism, and the 
empty detail of erudition. 

How good it will be when people establish 
themselves in noncombatant communities, where 
mechanism will forever be kept as a thing lower 
than nature, the same as the organs in the body 
are concealed. 

The Will to Beauty is the true motive that en- 
dures forever when it has realized itself in human 
sincerity. By observing how volcanoes, earth- 
quakes, and other elements destroy without rea- 
son or mercy, man might readily conclude, one 
would imagine, that "God" is without reason, and 
that man is more merciful than God. Instead of 
that, theologians began to spin wild theories. 
They made man sinful and God full of mercy. 
As for belief in the super-terrestrial state, was 
there a time when man did not see "apparitions" 
or hear "voices?" 

The vision of an after-life without a God — that 
required an impressionist painter accustomed to 
strange combinations. 

I cannot apologize for insufficient amplification 
of detail, or possible error in detail; I bring an 
ensemble. Perhaps in a later edition, if condi- 
tions permit, more of the appropriate detail can 
be added. 

The point of view once given, any person who 
takes the time to study and select from the volumi- 
nous literature of science already published, can 
accomplish this. 

END 



192 



